Taylor Swift has had numerous cameos in pal Blake Lively‘s multi-million dollar legal war with Justin Baldoni over allegations of sexual harassment and an online smear campaign by the It Ends With Us director against his co-star. Now the ‘Shake It Off’ superstar has taken centerstage with a subpoena issued for Swift to reveal what long time buddy Lively told her, what she knows, and likely a lot more.
Deadline has confirmed that Swift was subpoenaed earlier this week by lawyer Bryan Freedman for Baldoni, executives for his Wayfarer Studios, plus publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. The roping in of Swift, one of the most famous people on the planet, truly cranks up the volume on the now six-month old case that went public on December 20 when Lively filed a complaint with California’s Civil Rights Department.
The depth and scope of the blast radius of Swift now being officially involved is evident by the near total radio silence from the usually quip quick Team Blake and Team Baldoni. At the time of IEWU’s summer 2024 release Lively mentioned the then Eras Tour traveling Swift’s participation on the film’s soundtrack more than once.
On the other side of the subpoena, representatives for Swift were not leaving any statement stone unturned Friday.
“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,” a Swift spokesperson says Friday in response to the subpoena for Baldoni’s crew. “The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet.’ Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case,”
TMZ were first to report the Swift subpoena
