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A federal judge has ruled that Justin Baldoni is allowed to access messages exchanged between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift that relate to the film It Ends With Us and the legal dispute involving its stars. Blake Lively had tried to block Baldoni from obtaining these messages, arguing that he was trying to involve Taylor Swift in the lawsuit for publicity reasons. However, Judge Lewis Liman disagreed with that argument and said the messages could be important to the case. He acknowledged that sometimes legal requests can be both genuine and strategic moves in public opinion, but stressed that the messages might reveal key information.
Lively’s lawyers claimed that Taylor Swift was not involved in the dispute and that her messages shouldn’t be part of the case. But the judge pointed out that Lively herself had said Swift knew about conversations regarding the work environment on the film’s set. Because of that, the communication between Lively and Swift could be relevant to Lively’s claims of harassment and retaliation.
The judge explained that since Lively said Swift was aware of complaints about the film’s working conditions, it’s reasonable to ask for messages between them to help prove or disprove those claims.
Before this ruling, Baldoni’s legal team had subpoenaed Taylor Swift and her lawyers to get her side of the story. Swift’s team responded by saying she only licensed a song for the film and had no involvement with the movie’s production or the lawsuit, adding that she didn’t even see the film until weeks after it came out. Swift’s lawyers then tried to block the subpoenas, and Baldoni’s team eventually withdrew them. After that, Lively’s lawyers tried to shut down any connection between Swift and the lawsuit entirely, but the judge rejected that request.
The court also made it clear that a protective order is in place to keep these private messages confidential, preventing any leaks to the media and protecting everyone’s privacy, including Taylor Swift’s.
The background to the lawsuit is that Blake Lively filed a suit last December, accusing Justin Baldoni and his publicists of secretly trying to damage her reputation online and in the press after she spoke up about sexual harassment on set. Baldoni responded with a countersuit accusing Lively of defamation, but that countersuit was dismissed just last week.