Both TMZ and Page Six claimed to have “exclusives” yesterday about Taylor Swift’s relationship with Blake Lively. And both of their “exclusives” say the same thing: that Blake's legal drama with Justin Baldoni has fractured her friendship with Taylor. And that Taylor is distancing herself from Blake because she feels that Blake has dragged her into this mess and she feels used. Let’s focus on TMZ’s story because there’s more “detail” than what Page Six has been given by their so-called insiders.
Here's what TMZ is reporting:
“Taylor Swift feels she was used by Blake Lively in her war with Justin Baldoni, and she resents Blake calling her one of her "dragons" and leveraging her name. As we reported, there was a critical meeting at Blake and Ryan Reynolds' NYC penthouse with Justin to discuss a scene that Blake had rewritten for "It Ends with Us." Justin has said the meeting got super heated, and he felt ambushed because Ryan and Taylor showed up.
But a well-connected source close to Taylor tells TMZ ... Taylor came to Blake's apartment at the time Blake told her to, not knowing anyone else would be there. In other words, Taylor had no idea there was a meeting going on with Justin. The source goes on to say ... Justin was about to leave after the 2-hour meeting as Taylor walked in, and she was introduced to him for the first and only time. We're told all Taylor said to Justin was how excited she was to see the movie because he was her friend's boss.
Our source says Taylor believes Blake timed her meeting with Justin so Taylor would arrive before he left and is baffled by Blake later characterizing her as her "dragon." The source adds, "It's weird to say that about a friend." Remember, Blake texted Justin after the meeting ... referring to herself as Khaleesi from "Game of Thrones," and Taylor and Ryan as her protective "dragons." And there's more ... the source says Taylor is also learning Blake has been inappropriately leveraging her name for a long time, like telling a young actress that Taylor "cast her," which simply did not happen.”
It's worth noting here that immediately after this part in their story, TMZ promotes the latest episode of their podcast, Two Angry Men, featuring an interview with ….Justin Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman…!!!
Seriously?!
Like maybe try a little harder to hide who’s feeding you information.
This should be the first indication that even if Taylor Swift’s people were leaking information about her, they wouldn’t be taking it to TMZ for f-ck’s sake. Because independent of the Blake vs Baldoni case, it’s already been well-established that TMZ is the gossip headquarters for the men’s rights movement.
None of what TMZ is saying about Taylor tracks with what we know of Taylor and also Blake. They’ve been friends for years, the closest friends for years, so close that Taylor is godmother to Blake and Ryan’s children. So close that Taylor namechecks those children in her music. So close that Taylor 100% would have had a play-by-play of what was going down the whole time Blake was working on It Ends With Us.
When a woman has been sexually harassed in the workplace? She’s going to tell her best friends. Especially if the women involved are gossip girls – and Blake and Taylor are ABSOLUTELY gossip girls, they talk sh-t all over their text threads. So Taylor would have been brought in on the situation and Blake’s experience from the jump. So for TMZ’s sources to suggest that Taylor just flounced into Blake’s apartment one day, completely unaware of the backstory? This is crazy.
As for Taylor thinking it’s weird that Blake would refer to her as one of her “dragons”? The girl who built a whole era around snake symbolism – you’re saying THAT GIRL would think it was weird that her BFF would throw down a Game of Thrones comparison?
Have we forgotten how many revenge songs Taylor Swift has in her catalogue? One of them is called “Vigilante Sh-t”. She often fantasises through music about retribution, dramatising her grudges to process her anger and disappointment, often casting herself in the role of assassin, spy, snitch, snake, villain, and avenging angel.
How is it a stretch, then, that one of her closest friends would use a dragon metaphor to describe the two people closest to her?!?! It’s actually not a stretch at all but the exact opposite: totally on brand!
Was the dragon text message from Blake to Justin clumsy and not as artful as Taylor can be with her lyrics? No doubt. Was it cringe? Definitely.
But that is the point.
Justin Baldoni’s team knows that the dragon has been a fixation for online gossips obsessed with this dispute. That’s why they included it in his claim, and they’ve watched over the last few weeks as TikTok and social media has picked it apart.
From the very beginning, even before the lawsuits were initiated, Justin and his crisis managers were always looking to involve Taylor Swift and weaponise Taylor against Blake. Since both lawsuits became public, part of the Baldoni strategy has been to bait Taylor Swift into the ring. Much of Justin’s legal position has been to present himself as the little guy up against the big bitch with her powerful husband and her even more powerful best friend, one of the most powerful celebrities on the planet.
This latest story insinuating that Taylor is pulling away from Blake is just part of that ongoing effort to bait her. You may have seen that in recent days they’re publicly floating the possibility of subpoenaing Taylor for a deposition. And once that was dangled out for TikTok consumption, they were able to keep this chaos on FYP, making sure that people continued to speculate about this case online, and continued to dump on Blake.
It reminds me of how the Trump campaign, in the months preceding the election, kept trying to bait Taylor. Trump could not keep her name out of his mouth. Every chance he could he would work Taylor into the conversation. He commented on her music and how much he did or didn’t like it. He commented on her relationship with Travis Kelce when they first started dating. He said there was “no way” that Taylor would endorse Biden months before Biden pulled out of the race. He commented on her looks last summer, calling her “unusually beautiful” (I just dry heaved); he posted that AI generated poster of her seeming to support him. Then he stomped his feet and said he hated her when she made it clear she was voting for Kamala Harris.
This is also what Team Baldoni is doing – trying to keep Taylor connected to the case any way they can, partly to distract from the allegations against him. He is being accused of sexually harassing an actress, and apparently other women, on that set. But he and his legal team have very successfully made that almost the most inconsequential part of the issue with all these diversion tactics, one of the biggest being exploiting Taylor Swift.
It's dirty and it’s smart and it doesn’t even have to be true. It just has to be the squirrel that the pack chases after – which by the way is pretty much the play that Donald Trump has honed to perfection.
And speaking of that monster and Taylor Swift…
He’s going to the Super Bowl. She’ll also be at the Super Bowl to support Travis Kelce so game day just got a lot more complicated for her because that asshole is now the president who wants to be king. And a king can summon whoever he wants to his court. I can’t imagine that Taylor and Tree Paine, her publicist, aren’t accounting for this possibility. I would love to know what the dodge and weave plan is on Super Bowl Sunday. You know that hilarious rumour about her security moving her around in a giant suitcase? Now would be a good time to bring back that suitcase, LOOOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
