Justin Baldoni withdraws subpoena issued to Taylor Swift amid legal saga with Blake Lively
Justin Baldoni's legal team has withdrawn the subpoena sent to Taylor Swift amid the actor's legal feud with his It Ends With Us co-star, Blake Lively.
Lively's representative confirmed the news in a statement, according to PEOPLE Magazine. “We are pleased that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties have withdrawn their harassing subpoenas to Taylor Swift and her law firm."
"We supported the efforts of Taylor’s team to quash these inappropriate subpoenas directed to her counsel, and we will continue to stand up for any third party who is unjustly harassed or threatened in the process," they added.
Lively's camp claimed that Baldoni and the Wayfarer team had tried to exploit Swift's status as the center of the feud as a distraction.
"The Baldoni and Wayfarer team have tried to put Taylor Swift, a woman who has been an inspiration for tens of millions across the globe, at the center of this case since day one," they said.
"Exploiting Taylor Swift’s celebrity was the original plan in Melissa Nathan’s scenario planning document, and it continues to this day. Faced with having to justify themselves in federal court, they folded. At some point they will run out of distractions from the actual claims of sexual harassment and retaliation they are facing," they added.
Baldoni's camp has yet to comment on the matter.
This came two weeks after Baldoni's camp subpoenaed Swift, who they alleged was among those who pressured the actor into accepting one of Lively's rewrites for It Ends With Us.
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 said.
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 later published a report titled 'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine, which 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, his 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.
