An Eras Tour performance from Taylor Swift, who’s being pulled back into the Justin Baldoni v. Blake Lively showdown. Photo Credit: Ronald Woan
Just when she thought she was out, they pulled her back in: Taylor Swift is once again being dragged into the Justin Baldoni v. Blake Lively legal war, where her texts with Lively are officially fair game.
As many already know, the Baldoni v. Lively battle definitely doesn’t begin and “end with” the It Ends With Us co-stars, who’ve been clashing for a while now. The convoluted conflict boiled over back in December, and Swift has maintained that beyond licensing some music, she didn’t have much at all to do with the film.
That clear-cut position hasn’t stopped her from getting caught in the litigation crossfire. Last month, Swift was subpoenaed by Baldoni’s counsel; though this subpoena was quickly withdrawn and Baldoni’s countersuit subsequently dismissed, the headache isn’t through for Swift.
To be sure, Judge Lewis J. Liman has rejected Team Lively’s request for a protective order blocking the production of texts exchanged with Swift about It Ends With Us and the related legal quarrel.
We previously broke down a few central messages here – reportedly pertaining to Swift’s alleged presence during a script-editing effort targeting Baldoni and also involving Lively as well as her husband.
Overall, however, the relevant texts apparently go a bit beyond that and, as the presiding judge sees things, prior subpoena withdrawal or not, are an important part of the case.
“Lively herself has identified Swift as someone likely to have knowledge about complaints or discussions regarding the working environment on the set of It Ends With Us,” Judge Liman spelled out.
“Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film, among other issues,” the court continued, “the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims.”
With that, it’ll be worth closely monitoring the ugly episode from here. Bringing the focus outside the courtroom for a moment, it probably won’t come as a surprise that Swift has reportedly cut ties with Lively.
As described by anonymous and ostensibly well-informed sources, this split resulted from the contents of the above-mentioned central texts. (In the messages, Lively allegedly attempted to leverage or give the appearance of leveraging her relationship with Swift to score sought changes to the It Ends With Us script.)
But it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch that the wider situation – complete with questionable remarks, not-ideal publicity, subpoenas, and presumably forthcoming twists – factored into the reported decision.
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