NEW YORK — Taylor Swift is no longer involved in the ongoing legal battle between actors Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, after Baldoni’s legal team withdrew a subpoena targeting the pop star and her lawyers.
The subpoena, which sought communications between Swift’s legal team and that of her close friend Blake Lively, was dropped after Swift’s attorneys pushed back, calling it an “unwarranted fishing expedition.” Lively’s legal team also moved to quash the subpoena.
Baldoni, who directed and starred in the upcoming film It Ends With Us alongside Lively, is suing the actress and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. He accuses them of attempting to ruin his career with false claims of sexual harassment. In a countersuit, Lively claims Baldoni and several publicists retaliated against her with an online smear campaign after she made harassment complaints.
In a statement on Thursday, Lively’s spokesperson said Baldoni had tried to use Swift’s fame to distract from the real issues in the case.
“We are pleased that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties have withdrawn their harassing subpoenas to Taylor Swift and her law firm,” the spokesperson said. “We supported the efforts of Taylor’s team to quash these inappropriate subpoenas and will continue to defend any third party who is unjustly harassed in this process.”
In earlier court filings, Baldoni referred to Swift as a “megacelebrity friend” of Lively, alleging she and Reynolds pressured him to accept Lively’s proposed script changes. However, the withdrawn subpoenas appear unrelated to that claim.
Instead, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman said he was seeking evidence that Lively’s lawyer had tried to pressure Swift into publicly supporting Lively. According to Freedman, an unnamed individual close to Swift left a voicemail on February 14 claiming that Lively’s lawyer had threatened to release years of private messages between Swift and Lively unless Swift made a statement of support.
Freedman alleged that Swift’s lawyer viewed the call as extortion and ended the conversation. He also said that Swift’s legal team documented the incident in a letter to Lively’s lawyer, which Freedman attempted to obtain through the subpoena.
Lively’s attorneys dismissed Freedman’s claims as “unequivocally and demonstrably false,” arguing that they were only intended to attract media attention and shield scandalous allegations from defamation liability.
Both Swift’s and Lively’s legal teams said the allegations were irrelevant to the actual claims in the case.
Freedman later noted that the subpoena may no longer be necessary, as Swift’s law firm, Venable LLP, had begun cooperating voluntarily.
Lively’s spokesperson criticized Baldoni for trying to draw Swift into the case.
“The Baldoni and Wayfarer team have tried to put Taylor Swift, a woman who has inspired tens of millions, at the center of this case since day one,” the spokesperson said. “Faced with having to justify themselves in federal court, they folded.”
Swift’s representative previously called the subpoena a grab for “tabloid clickbait,” stressing that Swift had no involvement in the film.
“Taylor Swift never set foot on set, wasn’t involved in casting, creative decisions, or scoring, and only saw the film weeks after its release,” the spokesperson said, noting that Swift spent 2023 and 2024 headlining a global tour.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman had already struck Freedman’s allegations from the court record and warned that further misconduct could result in sanctions.
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