Taylor Swift’s legal team is attempting to reject Justin Baldoni’s subpoena as part of his continuing court dispute with Blake Lively.
According to legal documents obtained by Billboard on Tuesday, May 13, Swift’s legal team described the subpoena as “an abuse of the discovery process” in a legal motion filed on Monday, May 12. (The firm, Venable, was subpoenaed with Swift on April 29 as part of Baldoni and Lively’s It Ends With Us legal drama, according to Venable’s motion.
Venable’s filing, which recommended that Baldoni, 41, subpoena Swift, a close friend of Lively, 37, to take the heat out of his legal case, stated that “Venable had nothing to do with the film at issue or any of the claims or defenses asserted in the underlying lawsuit.” There is no rationale for this subpoena other than to divert attention from the facts of the case and place an excessive hardship and expense on a non-party.”
Venable’s move comes after a Swift spokesperson lambasted Baldoni’s lawyers in a statement to Us Weekly on Friday, May 9. “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,” according to the release. “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.”
Baldoni, who directed and appeared opposite Lively in 2024’s It Ends With Us, and Lively’s legal dispute became public in December 2024, when she filed a sexual harassment case against him. Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit, naming Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist, Leslie Sloane. Lively, Baldoni, and their legal teams have vigorously rejected each other’s allegations.
Venable’s motion revealed additional specifics about Baldoni’s subpoena, including his request for all correspondence between Swift and Lively, as well as Swift and Reynolds, 48, and the couple’s legal team, according to Billboard. Venable stated Baldoni should have obtained the communications directly from Lively and Reynolds.
Swift’s involvement with It Ends With Us was detailed in her lawyer’s statement to Us on May 9. “The connection Taylor had to this film was allowing the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet.'” Given that her involvement involved licensing a song for the film, as did 19 other artists, this document subpoena is intended to utilize Taylor Swift’s name to generate public interest by producing tabloid clickbait rather than focusing on the facts of the case.”
In an interview with People last week, Lively’s lawyer, Mike Gottleib, opposed the concept of Baldoni subpoenaing Swift and Reynolds. “This is a case about what happened to Blake Lively when she raised claims of sexual harassment on the set,” he claimed in an article published by the outlet on May 8. “It is not a question of how songs were chosen for the film.
It is not a case involving imaginary Marvel characters from Deadpool films.” (In January, Baldoni accused Reynolds of based the Deadpool & Wolverine character “Nicepool” on him, seeking that Disney and Marvel Studios “preserve all existing documents and data relevant,” as well as any materials “relating to or reflecting deliberate attempt to mock.”)
Reference: Taylor Swift Subpoena Fight Amid Justin Baldoni Blake Lively Legal Battle
