Blake Lively added PR crisis manager Nick Shapiro to her team Friday in her ongoing legal battle against her former “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
The former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) veteran once served as a senior counterterrorism and Homeland Security aide for former President Barack Obama. He will work as a legal communication strategist for the actress.
“The litigation team for Ms. Lively retained Mr. Shapiro to advise on the legal communications strategy for the ongoing sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit occurring in the Southern District of New York,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to TheWrap.
In addition to his 15-year-long background in crisis public relations, Shapiro previously held the position of deputy chief of staff for the CIA. He also in served Obama’s administration as its national security spokesperson. Some of his work includes leading the Obama administration’s response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting and the Boston Marathon Bombing.
The update comes after the actress submitted a letter via her lawyer Michael J. Gottlieb that stated her family, witnesses and fellow cast members received threatening messages over their support for Lively.
“As detailed in Ms. Lively’s amended complaint, Ms. Lively, her family, other members of the cast, various fact witnesses and individuals that have spoken out publicly in support of Ms. Lively have received violent, profane, sexist and threatening communications,” Gottlieb wrote in a letter to Judge Lewis Liman of the Southern District Court of New York last Thursday, prefacing the document with a request for “additional protections.”
As things stand, their trial is expected to begin in March 2026.
