Taylor Swift has been dragged back into Blake Lively’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni as the warring It Ends With Us co-stars prepare for a March 2026 trial over Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios.
In a letter to the court sent Thursday, Baldoni’s lawyer told the judge that Swift — the recently engaged superstar musician who was one of Lively’s close friends during the movie’s production — “has agreed to appear for deposition but is unable to do so before October 20, 2025.” That timing would be after the cut-off for depositions of third-party witnesses, so the lawyer asked for an extension.
In a response letter Friday, one of Lively’s lawyers questioned whether Swift had actually agreed to the examination and blasted Baldoni’s camp for an “astounding” lack of respect “for Ms. Swift’s privacy and schedule.” The lawyer urged the court to deny Baldoni’s request.
“The Wayfarer defendants have repeatedly sought to bring Ms. Swift into this litigation to fuel their relentless media strategy. In this latest effort, the Wayfarer defendants assert – though, notably, without evidence – that Ms. Swift has supposedly ‘agreed’ to sit for a deposition sometime between October 20-25, some three weeks after the close of fact discovery in this matter,” Lively’s lawyer Michael J. Gottlieb wrote in his opposition.
“Ms. Swift is someone whose calendar should be presumed to be packed with professional obligations for months in advance,” he continued. “At any point over the past six months, the Wayfarer defendants could have noticed a deposition, served a subpoena, and negotiated an agreeable time and place for this deposition. But they did not. Instead, the Wayfarer Defendants previously noticed Ms. Swift’s deposition in May 2025, accompanied by a barrage of press stories covering the same, only to withdraw that subpoena to much fanfare.”
Gottlieb claimed Baldoni and Wayfarer did “not even attempt to explain their need for [Swift’s] deposition.” He further accused them of trying “to generate a media spectacle in this matter.”
It wasn’t clear on Friday how the judge might rule. A rep for Swift did not respond to a request for comment. The pop star has a new album, The Life of a Showgirl, set for release Oct. 3.
Swift got caught up in Lively’s legal feud with Baldoni due to her previously very public friendship with the actress. In court filings, Baldoni claimed that Swift stopped by Lively’s Tribeca penthouse while Lively was pitching to Baldoni a rewrite of one of their pivotal “It Ends With Us” scenes.
Baldoni claimed Swift — originally described in filings as a “megacelebrity” — supported Lively’s edits, as did Lively’s husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds. Baldoni further alleged that Lively later sent him a text message referring to Swift and Reynolds as her “dragons.” Baldoni said he interpreted the message as a suggestion Lively could tap Swift to “make things very difficult for him.”
“If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons,” the purported text from Lively read. “For better or worse, but usually better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.”
A rep for Swift previously slammed Baldoni’s prior attempts to subpoena the “Blank Space” singer. “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,” the rep told Rolling Stone in May. The rep said the subpoena was “designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”
Lively’s battle with Baldoni exploded last year when The New York Times published a Dec. 21 story titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” The story revealed Lively had filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department.
Lively later sued in public court, alleging Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios subjected her to sexual harassment during production and then a subsequent smear campaign. Baldoni denied the allegations and countersued Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist, alleging civil extortion and defamation. Baldoni’s $400 million defamation complaint against Lively was dismissed in June.
