Baldoni’s lawyers have “repeatedly used Ms. Swift’s name as part of their media strategy,” actress’ lawyers write in protective order filed Friday
Blake Lively’s lawyers filed a motion Friday asking the judge overseeing her lawsuit against Justin Baldoni to block his lawyers from seeking any communication between the actress and Taylor Swift.
Back in May, Baldoni’s legal team dropped their efforts to subpoena Swift as part as their ongoing legal action against Lively; however, according to Lively’s lawyers, Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios’ lawyers continued to pursue previous communication, via texts and emails, between Lively and Swift as it pertains to the case.
On Friday, Lively’s lawyers filed “a protective order regarding the Wayfarer Parties’ continuing demands for Ms. Lively’s communications with Taylor Swift (made again yesterday), which they have pursued at the same time they have refused to produce to Ms. Lively the documents they publicly claimed to have received as part of a deal to withdraw their subpoenas to Ms. Swift and her counsel.”
The motion, obtained by Variety, adds that “Ms. Swift is not central to Ms. Lively’s claims (unlike dozens of other witnesses she identified who the Wayfarer Parties have largely ignored), and is otherwise irrelevant to the Wayfarer Parties’ claims,” and that “the Wayfarer Parties should not be permitted to withhold documents from Ms. Lively while demanding her communications with Ms. Swift.”
Earlier this week, Baldoni suffered a massive setback in his own counter legal action against Lively when the judge dismissed his $400 million lawsuit against the actress, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and publicist Leslie Sloane, as well as threw out a separate $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times. (In December, The New York Times published a story with Lively‘s sexual harassment and smear campaign allegations against Baldoni, which in turn sparked Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni.)
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A Lively spokesperson told Variety Friday, “The ongoing attempts to once again try and use the world’s biggest star as a PR tactic in this matter reflects a public unraveling of epic proportions and serves only to distract from the fact that Justin Baldoni’s lawsuits against Ms. Lively, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist, and the New York Times have been entirely dismissed.”
The trial for Lively’s suit against Baldoni is scheduled for March 2026.
