New court filings from actor Justin Baldoni’s legal team allege that Blake Lively asked Taylor Swift to delete text messages and issue a statement supporting her, intensifying the ongoing legal battle between Lively and Baldoni.
On May 14, Baldoni’s lawyers argued in a letter to the court that the subpoena served on Swift on May 9 is justified, claiming she may have been involved in a smear campaign against Baldoni orchestrated by Lively. The letter states that a reliable source indicated Lively asked Swift to remove texts exchanged between them. It also claims that an attorney representing Lively contacted Swift’s legal team demanding a public statement of support, while implying that private messages could be leaked if Swift refused.
The letter describes these demands as “inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats” and says that Baldoni’s legal team seeks these communications as evidence of witness intimidation.
Blake Lively’s attorney, Mike Gottlieb, categorically denied the allegations, calling them “cowardly” and “untethered from reality,” and stated that motions will be filed to hold Baldoni’s lawyers accountable for their conduct.
This legal dispute stems from their collaboration on the film It Ends With Us. Lively filed a lawsuit alleging a hostile work environment and a retaliatory smear campaign by Baldoni after she reported his behavior. Baldoni responded with defamation suits against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her PR team, accusing her of undermining his directorial control.
The subpoena involving Taylor Swift followed claims that during filming, Swift visited Lively and Reynolds’s NYC apartment, offering praise for Lively’s script changes, which Baldoni interpreted as pressure to conform to Lively’s direction.
Taylor Swift’s representatives told HELLO! magazine that the singer was not involved in the film’s production beyond licensing her song “My Tears Ricochet.” They emphasized that Swift never visited the set, made creative decisions, or reviewed the film before release. They called the subpoena an attempt to use Swift’s name for “tabloid clickbait” rather than focusing on factual matters.
