Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively have been in a legal battle for quite some time now, but things seem to be coming to a head involving Lively’s longtime best friend Taylor Swift. Baldoni’s legal team claims that Lively, 37, and her lawyers have tried to get the singer, 35, to delete personal text messages between herself and Lively.
Additionally, Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s legal counsel, alleged in recent court documents obtained by Us Weekly that Lively’s attorney demanded that Swift make a public statement in support of the It Ends With Us star and her side of the case. If she didn’t, private text messages were supposedly at risk of being released to the public. Freedman claims these threats constitute evidence of “an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.”
Lively’s counsel Michael Gottlieb responded to the allegation in a statement to Us Weekly. “This is categorically false,” the attorney said. “We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality. This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers, who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process. We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here.”
Days prior to this filing, Swift was subpoenaed by Baldoni’s legal team, which Lively’s counsel has allegedly tried to have dismissed. Allegedly, the pop star was present during a night at Lively’s New York City home when she invited Baldoni, 41, there to discuss changes she wanted made to a scene in the film. According to the lawsuit, Baldoni claims Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and Swift tried to pressure Baldoni to accept revisions of the scene that Lively had approved. Further still, Lively allegedly referred to her husband, 48, and friend as her “dragons” in a text message regarding the incident. “If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons,” the message supposedly read. “For better or worse, but usually better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for.”
Venable, the firm representing Swift, challenged the subpoena earlier this week in an effort to dismiss the inquiry that they feel only serves to “distract from the facts of the case” because of Swift’s lack of relevant information. Swift’s reps previously provided a statement regarding her involvement to Us Weekly:
“Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film. She did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history. The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet.’ Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lively and Reynolds supported Venable’s push to void the subpoena.
