Blake Lively has parted ways with longtime publicist Leslie Sloane after more than two decades, multiple outlets reported in early October, and has signed with Kelly Bush Novak of ID-PR — a fresh-start move following the conclusion of her bruising legal war with "It Ends With Us" co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
Page Six first reported the split on September 29, citing three sources. Lively had worked with Sloane since her early career, when the publicist was at Baker Winokur Ryder and Lively was becoming known as Serena van der Woodsen on "Gossip Girl." When Sloane launched her own agency, Vision PR, in 2014, Lively followed her there. The relationship spanned Lively's move into major film roles — "The Age of Adaline," "The Shallows," "A Simple Favor" — and her expansion into business ventures and brand partnerships. Neither Lively nor Sloane has publicly explained why the professional relationship ended.
On September 30, Page Six reported that Lively had signed with Novak, the founder and CEO of entertainment publicity firm ID-PR, whose client roster includes Lady Gaga, Christopher Nolan, Seth Rogen and Serena Williams. The change keeps Lively's core representation — agents at WME, Management 360, and attorneys Lindsey Strasberg and David Weber — while aiming to refocus public attention on her acting career after the high-profile litigation and its fallout. Some reports have suggested her husband, Ryan Reynolds, was deeply involved in pushing for the reset, though those accounts are unsourced.
Sloane was pulled into the Lively–Baldoni dispute when Baldoni named her and Vision PR as defendants in his $400 million countersuit, accusing her of planting negative stories about him. That suit was dismissed in June 2025. The underlying fight began with Lively's December 2024 complaint alleging that Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios engaged in an online smear campaign after she reported sexual harassment on the set of "It Ends With Us." After 18 months of filings, the former co-stars settled in May 2026, two weeks before a scheduled trial — a battle that reportedly cost both sides a combined $60 million in legal fees. Lively sought more than $8 million in costs and was later awarded roughly $400,000 by a judge.
Lively has since appeared in "Another Simple Favor," the sequel to her earlier collaboration with director Paul Feig. The publicist switch signals a deliberate attempt to turn the page: after a year and a half in which her name was defined by court filings, Brand Blake is getting a new architect.