Taylor Swift subpoenaed by Justin Baldoni's legal team amid his feud with Blake Lively
Taylor Swift has been issued a subpoena as a witness by Justin Baldoni’s legal team amid his feud with his It Ends With Us co-star, Blake Lively.
PEOPLE Magazine reported that the pop star has been issued a subpoena following allegations that she pressured Baldoni into accepting one of Lively's rewrites for It Ends With Us. He claimed that Lively asked to "take a pass" on the film's rooftop scene, where her character Lily Bloom meets Baldoni's Ryle Kincaid for the first time. According to Baldoni, he was "reluctant" to let Lively "rewrite this key scene," though he "agreed to take a look at what she put together." He noted that her version was "dramatically" different from how the script was originally written.
With her "exceedingly mild resistance," Baldoni claimed that Lively "went silent for multiple days." He then recalled texting Lively that her rewrite "didn’t feel great for me." He also mentioned Reynolds and "another megacelebrity friend" who's "influential and wealthy." The filing states that the friend is Swift.
Baldoni described his meetup with Reynolds at their penthouse in New York. Swift supposedly arrived later on and "began praising Lively’s script." For him, that meeting meant "he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script."
According to Baldoni, he texted Lively that while her supposed rewrite was "so much more fun and interesting," he "would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor" present, with a playful emoji. He said he didn't need "Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him." Lively allegedly responded to him by saying she's Khaleesi, a character from the Game of Thrones, and alluded to Reynolds and Swift being her "dragons."
It was earlier reported that Swift, as well as Deadpool & Wolverine star Hugh Jackman, will be issued a subpoena for their alleged involvement in the legal war.
"Anyone that had any knowledge of this situation will be subpoenaed, no matter of their celebrity status," the source said, per the outlet.
Baldoni's subpoena is 'tabloid clickbait'
As a response, Swift's legal rep said the singer did not have any active participation in the film other than the use of her song, My Tears Ricochet.
“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,” her spokesperson said, per NBC News.
They added that Baldoni's issuance of a subpoena was created to use the singer's name "to draw public interest" by creating "tabloid clickbait."
“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,” they added.
Ongoing legal battle
The legal saga of Lively and Baldoni stemmed from the former filing a sexual harassment complaint against the latter and Jamey Heath of Wayfarer Studios, the producer of It Ends with Us. Lively also accused them of running a smear campaign against her.
In her complaint, Lively accused Baldoni and Heath of telling her about their past sexual relationships and "previous porn addiction." Heath also allegedly showed Lively a video of his wife naked and giving birth. Baldoni and Heath likewise supposedly entered Lively's makeup trailer without permission, "including when she was breastfeeding her infant child." Lively also recalled Baldoni claiming he could communicate with the dead, including her father, Ernie Lively. She found it "off-putting and violative."
The New York Times then published a report titled 'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine. The report used excerpts from alleged text messages and emails that Lively obtained through a subpoena and detailed the work of crisis management firm TAG PR for Baldoni, including allegedly planting negative stories in the media.
Baldoni's camp has called the accusations in the report "categorically false."
Later, Baldoni's camp released a series of video takes during the production of It Ends with Us in an attempt to debunk Lively's sexual harassment allegations against him. Lively and Reynolds, in turn, requested a gag order.
On Feb. 3, Baldoni launched a website containing two documents: his $400 million 224-page amended complaint against Lively and Reynolds and a 168-page "timeline of relevant events," which included a compilation of screenshots as an additional exhibit to his amended complaint. It came two days before their first court hearing.
The trial for Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al. case is scheduled for March 2026.
