By JACK SMART
Is it bad blood? As Blake Lively’s legal war with her It Ends With Us director-costar Justin Baldoni rages on, insiders say her longtime relationship with Taylor Swift is not what it once was. “Their friendship has halted,” says a source close to Swift, 35, who is godmother to the actress’s daughters. “Taylor wants no part in this drama.” Another says that Lively, 37, and the pop superstar— who was sent a subpoena by Baldoni’s lawyers on May 9—are indeed “taking some space” but insists that they are “not no longer friends.”
Swift was first pulled into the legal battle—which began in December when Lively sued Baldoni, 41, alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign (Baldoni has denied her claims)—when he countersued the Gossip Girl alum and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, claiming defamation and extortion. Baldoni’s amended complaint in January detailed a meeting with Lively, Reynolds, 48, and Swift about the It Ends With Us script and included alleged texts from Lively referring to her husband and the singer-songwriter as her “dragons.”
‘[THE PAST YEAR HAS] BEEN FULL OF THE HIGHEST HIGHS AND THE LOWEST LOWS OF MY LIFE’ —BLAKE LIVELY ON LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS
Then on May 14 the Grammy winner—who a source said was “really hurt” by the situation and “didn’t take it lightly”—became the subject of another volley between Lively’s and Baldoni’s teams. Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, claimed in a letter to the U.S. District Court that, per an anonymous source “who is highly likely to have reliable information,” Lively pressured Swift via their lawyers to issue a statement of support on social media. If Swift “refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released,” wrote Freedman. (After Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb called those claims “completely untethered from reality,” Judge Lewis J. Liman struck Freedman’s letter from the docket, deeming it “improper” and “irrelevant.”) On May 19 Lively’s attorneys filed a motion seeking sanctions against Baldoni’s collaborators and their legal teams for “harassing Ms. Lively, causing unnecessary delay, and increasing the cost of litigation.”
Swift, meanwhile, has yet to comment directly on the drama. In a May 9 statement slamming the subpoena, a rep for the singer said that other than lending her song “My Tears Ricochet” to the It Ends With Us trailer, Swift “was not involved” and had not seen the movie “until weeks after its public release.”
With a March 2026 trial still far in the distance, sources say neither Lively nor Baldoni is backing down. “He’s certainly feeling the financial and emotional weight of his legal fight,” says a Baldoni friend, who adds that he’s leaning on his wife, Emily, through the ordeal. “His family serves as a sanctuary.” Similarly, Lively—who recently finished promoting her latest film, Another Simple Favor—told People that this summer, “some time off sounds so nice with my babies and my husband.”
—REPORTING BY PERNILLA CEDENHEIM, SARAH JONES, SEAN MANDELL AND ELIZABETH ROSNER
What’s Going on With Blake and Gigi? Another casualty of Lively’s legal woes: her once-tight bond with Gigi Hadid. The supermodel, 30, “feels terrible” that close friend Swift “is being pulled into the legal drama,” says a Hadid source. Adds another pal: “Gigi doesn’t want to get involved, but she is closer to Taylor and has distanced herself from Blake, although she still considers her a friend.”
Justin Bieber was in dire financial straits when he sold his song catalog to Hipgnosis Songs Capital for a reported $200 million in December 2022, according to the new documentary TMZ Investigates: What Happened to Justin Bieber? The doc claims the singer, 31, was “broke,” due in part to debts incurred following the cancellation of his Justice World Tour in September 2022. A rep for Bieber had no comment. Meanwhile, amid concerns for the embattled singer, a source says Bieber, his wife, Hailey, and their son Jack, 9 months, spent the weekend together in Canada.
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