In the ongoing legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, in which she is accusing him of sexual harassment and reputational sabotage and he is counter-accusing her of sabotaging his reputation and taking over his movie, a main character has emerged…and it’s neither of them. The main character is Taylor Swift. And this time she isn’t trying to be one.
For months now, one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant narratives that people online have been obsessing over related to this case is whether or not Blake and Taylor are still friends. In the absence of legal updates, until the last week or so, since this story is such a heatscore and generates so much activity for media outlets and the TikTok and YouTube content creators that have been following it, the mystery over Blake and Taylor’s relationship has been the subject of relentless fascination. They hung out so much, and so publicly, until the drama around It Ends With Us broke last summer. And they have not hung out at all, at least not publicly, since then. Those who support Justin Baldoni are pointing to this as evidence that Taylor has cut off Blake, the implication being that Blake’s position is so weak that even Taylor, the godmother of her children, wants nothing to do with her.
Late last week, news broke that Taylor had been subpoenaed by Justin Baldoni’s side requesting to turn over documents. Taylor’s rep then issued a statement – I posted about it earlier this week – basically saying she had nothing to do with the movie, didn’t even see it until well after it came out, and suggested that “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".
Blake haters pointed to this as further proof that Taylor was distancing herself from Blake. A more neutral read of Taylor’s statement would be that she was distancing herself from all of it, and also calling attention to the fact that she was being made the main character of the situation to fuel the “tabloid clickbait” that’s been going on for months. And she’s not wrong. The “facts of the case” are not really being talked about because, again, what’s being talked about, non-stop, is whether or not Taylor broke up with Blake the way she broke up with Karlie Kloss.
Now a new breaking development – a letter that Justin Baldoni’s lawyers submitted to the court yesterday has been leaked. The letter is apparently a justification of the subpoena issued to Taylor. In it Baldoni’s team is alleging that Blake asked Taylor to delete text messages and that Blake’s lawyer demanded that Taylor’s lawyer issue a statement of support for Blake, threatening that if they did not comply, Blake would release personal text messages that she and Taylor exchanged.
So, basically, Justin Baldoni is accusing Blake Lively of extorting Taylor Swift. In case you didn’t think this mess could get even more batsh-t crazy, like literally ripped from the tabloids – and there are more layers to that comparison because Justin Baldoni’s lawyer says in the letter that much of the basis for these allegations is coming from an anonymous "source who is highly likely to have reliable information”, which is exactly what you would read in a tabloid like the Daily Mail or Star Magazine or any number of grocery store publications, take your pick.
And yet, given that Justin’s lawyer has taken these claims directly to the judge in this case, it gives his argument some weight in the court of public opinion, and this is where they’ve been fighting – and winning – the battle for months. It’s enough for some people on social media to speculate that the “anonymous source” might actually be a member of Taylor’s legal team, implying that Taylor is so done with Blake, she’s now willing to work with Justin.
Blake’s lawyer has issued a denial. After Justin’s letter leaked yesterday, Blake’s legal issued a statement of their own to the media.
"This is categorically false. We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality. This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer [Justin Baldoni’s company) parties’ lawyers, who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process. We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here.”
So now Blake’s lawyers are accusing Justin’s lawyers of misconduct and essentially fabricating a story about Blake’s legal team threatening Taylor.
We’ve gone from Taylor issuing a statement asking to be left out of this sh-tshow and that she had nothing to do with anything and subpoenaing her for documents was without merit, to the allegation that Taylor is in possession of documents that prove that Blake was extorting her. We’ve gone from a storyline that had Blake using her friendship with Taylor to intimidate Justin, to Blake being desperate to save her friendship with Taylor, to Blake blackmailing Taylor to publicly support her or else.
That brings me back to the point of my post – that Taylor Swift has unwillingly become the main character in this chaotic lawsuit even though she’s neither the plaintiff nor the defendant. And while we wait to see if there really is any evidence to back up any of these claims, it’s worth considering who benefits most from this latest twist.
Blake’s been taking Ls for months, this is yet another one. There’s no advantage to Taylor here either, getting embroiled in one of the most notorious pop culture fights in recent history over a project that isn’t her work. So the two women in this story are at a disadvantage. But the man in this mess is Justin Baldoni. And he just scored more public relations points.
