Overview

• Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are locked in a legal battle, with Lively accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and Baldoni countersuing for $400 million in defamation claims.
• Justin Baldoni’s legal team subpoenaed Taylor Swift, seeking private texts with Lively, despite Swift’s minimal involvement in the film beyond licensing one song.
• Baldoni’s lawyer alleged that Lively threatened to leak Swift’s private messages unless Swift publicly supported her, a claim Lively’s team denies as baseless.
• A federal judge deemed the extortion allegations inadmissible, citing their intent to generate public scandal rather than relevance to the case.
• The legal dispute has strained personal relationships, with reports of a pause in Swift and Lively’s decade-long friendship and Gigi Hadid distancing herself from Lively.