Blake Lively's lawyer Mike Gottlieb has denied claims that the Gossip Girl actor tried to blackmail Taylor Swift into sharing a public statement of support during her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
Lively's friendship with the 'Shake It Off' singer has been in the spotlight over the past week, as attorneys for It Ends With Us co-stars Lively and Baldoni gear up for their highly publicised sexual harassment case.
In the latest update, Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman claimed that Lively's team had attempted to force Swift into sharing public support for the actor by threatening to leak personal text messages between the pair.
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According to the filing, via The Times, Freedman also claimed that his team had received information suggesting that Lively had asked Swift to delete their text messages – Lively's team has since denied both claims.
Responding to the claims made by Freedman, Gottlieb branded the allegations 'categorically false'.
"We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality," he said.
Lively's team also moved to have the claims thrown out of court, a request which Judge Lewis J. Liman has since granted, Deadline reports.
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"The Letter is improper and must be stricken," read Liman's motion. "It is irrelevant to any issue before this court and does not request any action from this court."
The move comes just days after Baldoni's legal team confirmed they would be subpoenaing the 35-year-old 'I Knew You Were Trouble' singer during the trial, which is scheduled to take place on 9 March 2026.
Lively's team responded has since condemned the move, claiming that Baldoni's team were trying 'to turn a case of sexual harassment and retaliation into entertainment for the tabloids'.
"This is a very serious legal matter, not Barnum & Bailey’s Circus," the statement read, as per Deadline.
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"The defendants continue to publicly intimidate, bully, shame and attack women’s rights and reputations. Including in the past month seeking to strike down for all, a powerful California victims’ rights law, calling it ‘unconstitutional'.
"The disturbing actions by a billionaire, men who made their careers as ‘female allies’ and their team continue to show their true colours."
A representative for Swift also condemned the move, claiming Baldoni's team were using the singer's name for 'creating tabloid clickbait'.
"She never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history," a representative for the singer told LADbible.
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"The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, 'My Tears Ricochet'. Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, 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."
LADbible has approached representatives of Lively and Swift for further comment.
Topics: Blake Lively, Taylor Swift, US News, Justin Baldoni
Brenna Cooper