Blake Lively is making it crystal clear, leave Taylor Swift out of this.
The 37-year-old actress has filed for a protective court order against Justin Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios legal team to block them from continuing their demands for her private communications with Swift. In a new letter submitted to U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman and obtained by PEOPLE, Lively’s attorney, Esra Hudson, says Baldoni’s team is using Swift as a media pawn in a case that’s already starting to fall apart around them.
Hudson’s filing reveals that even after Baldoni’s team withdrew a subpoena aimed at Taylor Swift last month, they’re still trying to gain access to private messages between her and Lively. The kicker? They claim they already “got all they needed” from Swift when they withdrew the subpoena, but are still pushing to see more. This contradiction, according to Hudson, makes it obvious that their real agenda is not legal justice but manipulating Swift’s global fame for PR leverage. “Good cause exists for this request,” Hudson writes, adding that the Wayfarer Parties’ ongoing pursuit of Swift-related documents is nothing more than a tactic “to make Ms. Swift and her fan base central to their media strategy against Ms. Lively.”
A spokesperson for Lively didn’t hold back either, stating that Baldoni and his team “are still demanding access to Taylor Swift’s private communications, despite having already subpoenaed and then withdrawn that subpoena.” The spokesperson also exposed how far back this strategy goes, pointing to an internal “Scenario Planning” document from August 2024. Created by Melissa Nathan’s crisis PR firm (which previously worked for Baldoni), the document lists Swift as a key concern and warns that her fan base should be taken “extremely seriously.” The document, now part of the official complaint (Lively Amended Complaint, Exhibit D, ¶214(b)), lays bare the extent to which they intended to use Swift’s name for narrative control.
All of this comes while Baldoni’s lawsuits continue to collapse one by one. Just this week, Judge Liman dismissed Baldoni’s massive $400 million countersuit against Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their longtime publicist Leslie Sloane, and The New York Times. That suit had accused the group of defamation and conspiracy, but the court wasn’t buying it. Lively’s lawyers, Mike Gottlieb and Hudson, called the ruling “a total victory and complete vindication” and said the case was nothing more than a retaliatory mess from Baldoni and his team.
But the legal battles aren’t over. On June 12, it was reported by Deadline that Lively is preparing subpoenas for Scooter Braun and HYBE, the K-Pop giant Braun now runs. A notice of the subpoenas was sent on June 10, with Lively’s team planning to seek documents related to Melissa Nathan’s PR work for Baldoni. The connection to Braun is especially spicy given his long and bitter legal feud with Taylor Swift over the rights to her music masters, a battle Swift recently won after finally regaining control in late May. It’s no coincidence that Swift keeps getting pulled into the orbit of this entire drama, and Lively’s legal team seems fed up with it.
Braun, 43, isn’t the only one with eyes on him right now. Nathan, previously named a co-defendant in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni, is under scrutiny for her crisis PR work that allegedly played a central role in shaping the media narrative on behalf of Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios.
Even after losing big in court, Baldoni’s side isn’t waving the white flag. In an appearance on TMZ Live, one of his attorneys criticized the dismissal, calling it “not fair” and “not right.” He insisted Baldoni is only seeking to be “vindicated” and wants his “day in court” to “tell the truth.” The lawyer added, “He knows who he is. He knows what he’s done. He knows what he hasn’t done.” But given how thoroughly the countersuit was dismissed and how every tactic seems to rely on dragging celebrities like Swift into the fray, it’s hard not to view their motives as more performative than principled.
At this point, Blake Lively is done playing defense. Her request for a protective order is a bold statement, she won’t let Justin Baldoni and his legal team keep weaponizing her friendships or dragging Swift’s name through the mud. With lawsuits falling apart, subpoenas piling up, and PR strategies exposed, this case is spiraling fast. And Lively’s move to shut it down might be the only thing keeping it from turning into a full-blown celebrity circus.
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