11-05-2025
NEW YORK: Taylor Swift’s representatives have told media she is being brought into a legal row between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively to create “tabloid clickbait”.
The 35-year-old singer was summoned to a US court after it was alleged she encouraged Baldoni to accept script rewrites by Lively for It Ends With Us, a film that both starred in and is the centre of a sexual harassment case.
Baldoni says he was invited to Lively’s New York home in 2023 to discuss script changes, where Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and Swift were there to serve as her “dragons”.
Representatives for Swift said “she was not involved in any casting or creative decision” and “never saw an editor made any notes on the film”.
Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, 41, in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and a smear campaign. Baldoni is counter-suing Lively and her husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds, on claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.
Lively and Baldoni have been locked in a dispute since the film, which is an adaption of a Colleen Hoover novel, was released last summer.
According to Baldoni, there were tensions over the 2023 re-write of the scene, at which he was surprised to find Reynolds and Swift present.
He alleges Lively wrote in a text to 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. For better or worse but usually better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for.”
Baldoni says he responded supportively, writing; “I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor).
“You really are a talent across the board. Really excited and grateful to do this together.”
It is also alleged that Swift was involved in the casting of Isabela Ferrer in the film, who played a younger version of Lively’s character, Lily Bloom.
Speaking at the New York premiere of It Ends With Us, Ferrer said; “She (Taylor Swift) was a helpful part of the audition which I found out later when I got it and that rocked my world” but Swift’s representatives said the only involvement she had in the film was permitting the use of her song, My Tears Ricochet, noting that she was among 20 artists featured in the film.
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, (and) she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film”, they said.
They added that Swift did not see It Ends With Us until “weeks after its release” as she was “travelling around the globe” on tour at the time.
The popstar’s spokespeople argued that the subpoena “designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case”.
Meanwhile, a record store owner says he expect a busy Record Store Day thanks to a limited edition release from Taylor Swift.
Chris Kent, of Spun Out in Northampton, believes the singer’s Fortnight single will tempt lapsed record-buyers back into independent stores.
The annual event has become one of the biggest in the music calendar, with independent record shops often achieving their highest sales of the year.
Kent said; “Usually the queue (on Record Store Day) at 08:00 GMT is 150-200 people deep, but I’m guessing because of the Taylor Swift items (demand) will be quite strong.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)