Blake Lively Effort to Block Justin Baldoni From Accessing Taylor Swift Messages Denied
Blake Lively's effort to block 'It Ends With Us' director and co-star Justin Baldoni from accessing private messages with Taylor Swift was shut down on Wednesday, as Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled that they were relevant to the ongoing litigation between the former colleagues.
Liman, however, put a protective order in place to keep Baldoni's discovery from leaking to the press.
'Lively's motion is rooted in the broader concern that the Wayfarer Parties are using demands for communications with Swift not 'to obtain information relevant to claims and defenses in court, but to prop up a public relations narrative outside of court.' But this concern does not justify denying the Wayfarer Parties relevant discovery,' Liman wrote. 'If the issue is that the Wayfarer Parties may leak the requested communications to the press, this concern is addressed by the Protective Order issued by the Court.'
Lively moved for a protective order last week, arguing that the requests were not only unnecessary—since the Wayfarer Parties previously claimed to have 'everything they needed' from Swift—but also part of a broader 'media strategy' designed to generate press coverage and undermine her.
'Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film … the requests for messages with Swift … are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively's harassment and retaliation claims,' Judge Liman said in his ruling.
The court rejected Lively's motion, finding that her communications with Swift were likely relevant given Lively's own assertion that Swift had knowledge of working conditions on set. Simultaneously, the court also denied a cross-motion by the Wayfarer Parties to compel Lively to accelerate production of other categories of documents. The judge found that Lively was already complying with the agreed production schedule and had made reasonable proposals for reciprocal document exchanges that the Wayfarer Parties declined.
A spokesperson for Lively told TheWrap of the decision, 'The Court outright denied the Wayfarer Parties' motion to compel documents from Ms. Lively, who has produced far more documents in this case than the Wayfarer Parties combined. Further, the Court's protective order ruling rests on the Wayfarer Parties' admission that they received nothing from Taylor Swift, which is exactly the opposite of what their 'insider' claimed two weeks ago.'
'As for the rest, Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties demanded access to Taylor Swift's private communications—despite having already subpoenaed and then withdrawn that subpoena,' the statement continued. 'Baldoni's desire to drag Taylor Swift into this has been constant dating back to August 2024, when the crisis PR firm led by Melissa Nathan included her in their 'Scenario Planning' document, referred to her as a bully, and called for a strategy to influence the 'TS fanbase' We will continue to call out Baldoni's relentless efforts to exploit Ms Swift's popularity, which from day one has been nothing more than a distraction from the serious sexual harassment and retaliation accusations he and the Wayfarer parties are facing.'
The actor-director-producer's legal team subpoenaed the pop star back in May, claiming that there was necessary information she had in relation to his opposing lawsuits with Lively, her longtime friend. The subpoena was quickly denounced May 9 by Swift's team, who argued that the singer's only involvement in the making of 'It Ends With Us' was allowing one of her songs to be used in the film.
Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman then advocated for Swift's subpoena in a May 14 letter to Judge Liman, alleging that Lively had been extorting the singer-songwriter for public support as she sued her director and co-star for sexual harassment and retaliation and Baldoni countersued her, her husband Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times for defamation.
The post Blake Lively Effort to Block Justin Baldoni From Accessing Taylor Swift Messages Denied appeared first on TheWrap.
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