Justin Baldoni Accuses Blake Lively’s Lawyers of Extorting Taylor Swift
The seemingly daily twists and turns happening in the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni legal drama are deserving of their very own dramatic movie. And now it’s one in which Taylor Swift would have a headlining role.
Late last week, Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman reportedly had Swift served with a subpoena as a witness in the ongoing legal case. And the “Anti-Hero” singer’s team wasted no time in responding to the move.
Related: Blake Lively's Lawyer Breaks Silence on Taylor Swift Situation
As it was TMZ who initially reported on the subpoena, a spokesperson for Swift issued a statement to the outlet, telling them: “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 only connection Swift has to It Ends With Us, according to the spokesperson, “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.”
Though it was Baldoni’s team who involved the billionaire pop star in the first place, he seems annoyed that Swift’s team issued such a scathing rebuke—and so quickly. According to The Hollywood Reporter, in a letter sent to the courts on Wednesday, Baldoni is now claiming that the statement on Swift’s behalf was made under duress.
According to Baldoni’s team, Lively’s lawyer contacted Swift’s legal team and “demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively, intimating that, if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature” that Lively is in possession of would be made public. Freedman states that he obtained this information from an unnamed source who is “highly likely to have reliable information.”
Michael Gottlieb, Lively’s lawyer, has deemed the accusations “categorically false.” Per THR, he went on to say:
“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.”
Swift and Lively have been close friends for a decade now, first connecting when Lively revealed herself to be a huge fan of the singer on Instagram. Swift is godmother to Lively's three daughters with Ryan Reynolds (the couple has four children).
Swift has yet to comment on the latest accusations.