Blake Lively’s lawyer Mike Gottlieb slammed Justin Baldoni‘s legal team’s potential plans to subpoena Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and good friend Taylor Swift in their 2026 trial.
“It’s completely unclear what claims or defenses, in the case any of these celebrities … have any relevance to at all,” Gottlieb insisted in an interview with People published on Thursday, May 8.
It was reported in April that both Reynolds and Swift — along with anyone in Lively and Baldoni’s inner circles — could be served with subpoenas in advance of next year’s legal proceedings. Reynolds was accused by Baldoni of including the character Nicepool in his 2024 blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine as a thinly veiled dig at Lively’s It Ends With Us costar. (Reynolds and Marvel have denied those accusations.)
Us obtained court documents in January in which Baldoni’s legal team alleged the filmmaker and Lively exchanged text messages about Reynolds and Swift purportedly offering input on It Ends With Us’ rooftop scene.
Gottlieb insists there is no valid reason for the Deadpool actor or Swift to testify in Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane. (Lively originally filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in December 2024, alleging a hostile work environment and sexual harassment.)
“This is a case about what happened to Blake Lively when she raised claims of sexual harassment on the set,” the attorney argued. “It’s not a case about how songs were chosen for the movie. It’s not a case about fictional Marvel characters in Deadpool movies.”
“You have to ask the question, then, why are these people being subpoenaed?” he continued. “Do they have any actual relevance to the case at hand? You can’t just go around subpoenaing people because they’re famous and you think it will generate a bunch of headlines. And the federal courts don’t tolerate that kind of behavior.”
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Lively’s lawyer expressed concerns that there may be a media circus around the trial if celebrities are unnecessarily called to testify.
“We don’t expect this case is going to turn into a circus of parading in every celebrity that might have ever had a conversation with Blake Lively or Ryan Reynolds — or, in the same way, about any famous person who might’ve ever had a conversation with Justin Baldoni or [his business associate] Steve Sarowitz,” he said.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman responded to Gottlieb’s comments by saying, “Although obviously uncomfortable for the Lively parties, the truth is not a distraction. The truth has been clearly shown through unedited receipts, documents and real life footage. More to come. Blake was the one who brought her high-profile friends into this situation without concern for their own personal or public backlash. As the truth shows, she used her Dragons to manipulate Justin at every turn.”
“Ryan’s involvement is very well documented and we continue to discover more intentional misconduct,” Freedman went on. “Was Disney actually complicit in Ryan using shareholder revenues to further a personal grudge? I would be surprised to learn that this type of corporate waste would not lead to much more exposure for those that have been complicit in affecting shareholder revenue.”
While Gottlieb expressed his preference for Lively’s inner circle to be kept out of the trial, the lawyer has confirmed the Another Simple Favor actress will give direct testimony.
“The ultimate moment for a plaintiff’s story to be told is at trial,” Gottlieb said. “We expect that to be the case here [with Lively]. So we would, of course, expect her to be a witness at her trial. Of course, she’s going to testify.”
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He continued, “There are individuals who were witnesses to or experienced misconduct that is relevant to Ms. Lively’s claims. We expect their testimony, particularly about what took place on set, will come out through live witness testimony.”
Baldoni filed suit against Lively, Reynolds and Sloane in January and accused the actress of trying “to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to cover up for her “tone-deaf” promotion of alcohol and haircare brands at the same time as she starred in a film about domestic violence. The filmmaker’s lawyers also accused Lively of creating a “takeover strategy” on It Ends With Us after having disagreements on set with Baldoni.
Lively’s legal team responded by alleging Baldoni tried to “shift the narrative” with his suit, since the actress had previously filed suit against him for sexual harassment last December.
“The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success,” her spokesperson said. “Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
A judge has set an initial start date for the Baldoni-Lively trial for March 9, 2026. The pretrial discovery period is underway now.
