Taylor Swift subpoenaed in lawsuit over ‘It Ends With Us’

Global pop icon Taylor Swift has been subpoenaed in the ongoing legal dispute involving actor-director Justin Baldoni and actress Blake Lively, connected to the film "It Ends With Us".

Although not a party to the lawsuit, Swift's name emerged in Baldoni's $400 million defamation suit against Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds.

The case includes text messages in which Lively appears to refer to Swift as "one of her dragons," with Baldoni's legal team identifying her as the unnamed "megacelebrity friend" referenced in the filing.

In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for Swift clarified that her only connection to "It Ends With Us" was licensing her song "My Tears Ricochet" for use in the trailer and a scene. 

The spokesperson stated, "Taylor 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, 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."

The texts in question allegedly relate to a rooftop scene in "It Ends With Us", which Lively reportedly rewrote. According to the filing, Baldoni was summoned to Lively's New York penthouse, where Reynolds and the "megacelebrity friend" expressed support for Lively's revised scene. 

Baldoni later texted Lively, "Also was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did… (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor)… Really excited [and] grateful to do this together."

Read more

Halsey and Amy Lee team up for a track in ‘John Wick’ spin-off 'Ballerina'

Lively, in another message, compared herself to "Game of Thrones'" Khaleesi and wrote, "My dragons also protect those I fight for… we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you."

Swift's representatives dismissed the subpoena as an attempt to generate media buzz. "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," the spokesperson stated.

Meanwhile, actress Isabela Ferrer, who stars in "It Ends With Us", claimed in an interview with Extra that Swift had "played a helpful part" in her casting, although the details of this involvement remain unclear.

The dispute between Lively and Baldoni began in December, when Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and launching a smear campaign. 

Following a New York Times report on the matter, Baldoni sued the newspaper for $250 million on grounds of libel, before countersuing Lively and Reynolds in January.

Lively and Reynolds have filed motions to dismiss the defamation suit, claiming it is retaliatory and stems from their initial harassment allegations.