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Justin Baldoni Acquires Rights to Read Blake Lively’s Private Chats With Taylor Swift: Here’s What It Means
A judge has ruled that Justin Baldoni can obtain messages between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift related to It Ends With Us. Here's everything you need to know.
Trigger Warning: This article includes references to sexual harassment.
A federal judge has ruled that Justin Baldoni can access messages exchanged between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift related to the film It Ends With Us and the legal conflict between its stars. The decision came after Lively tried to stop Baldoni from getting the messages, arguing that he was dragging Swift into the lawsuit for publicity.
Judge Lewis Liman disagreed and stated in his order on Wednesday, June 18, that the messages could be critical to the case, as per Variety. “A motion or request may be, and in this case often has been, both a legitimate litigation tactic and an attempt to maneuver in the broader court of public opinion,” he wrote.
Lively’s legal team had argued that Swift had nothing to do with the dispute, and her messages should not be part of the legal process. However, the judge stated that Blake Lively had already said Taylor Swift was aware of discussions about the work environment on set. That made the communication potentially relevant to Lively’s claims of harassment and retaliation.
“Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film, among other issues, the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims,” Judge Liman stated.
Here’s what happened before the ruling
Earlier, Baldoni’s legal team subpoenaed Swift and her lawyers to get her input. Swift’s spokesperson responded at the time by saying she had nothing to do with It Ends With Us except for licensing a song and had not seen the movie until weeks after its release.
Swift’s team filed to block the subpoenas, and Baldoni’s team later withdrew them. After that, Lively’s lawyers tried to close the matter entirely, calling Swift irrelevant to the lawsuit. But the judge was not persuaded.
The court emphasized that a protective order remains in place to prevent private messages from being leaked to the media. This helps protect the privacy of the individuals involved, including Taylor Swift.
Blake Lively filed the lawsuit in December, claiming that Justin Baldoni and his publicists launched a secret campaign to smear her online and in the press after she raised concerns about sexual harassment on set. Baldoni later filed a countersuit, accusing Lively of defamation. That countersuit was dismissed last week.
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