It seems like the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni over what happened on the set of It Ends With Us is never going to end — especially now that Taylor Swift has been dragged into it. This week, Justin’s lawyers claimed that Blake blackmailed longtime BFF Taylor into showing her support for her publicly under the threat of releasing her private text messages to the world, so it sounds like this lawsuit just got a lot messier.
Justin’s legal team accused Blake of blackmail in a new filing on Wednesday.
According to court documents obtained by People, lawyer Bryan Freedman wrote a letter to the judge presiding over the case shutting down Blake’s claims that any information Taylor could have about the case would be “irrelevant.”
The letter claims that Blake “demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively, intimating that, if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.”
Now that Justin’s lawyers know those texts supposedly exist, they want to know what’s in them, since they believe Blake is allegedly making “an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.”
They claim that these text messages are essential to their case, referring to Taylor as a ‘witness.’
Now that Justin’s lawyers know those texts supposedly exist, they want to know what’s in them, since they believe Blake is allegedly making “an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.”
Blake’s attorney says these claims are ‘categorically false.’
Blake’s lawyer, Mike Gottlieb, issued a statement to People denying Justin’s team’s latest claims.
“This is categorically false. We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality,” the statement said. “This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers, who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process. We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here.”
Taylor was issued a subpoena last week.
On Friday, news broke that Taylor was given a subpoena in the case, and her spokesperson released a statement shortly after claiming that her only involvement in It Ends With Us was allowing the film to use 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,” the statement said.
