UNLOCKINGSITE

Taylor Swift’s lawyers have hit back at claims that the pop icon agreed to testify in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s ongoing lawsuit.

It had originally been claimed by Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, that Swift had agreed to the deposition.

People Magazine reported that he told U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman that the singer ‘has agreed to appear for deposition’ but couldn’t do so before October 20 because of ‘long-standing professional obligations.’

However, Swift’s attorney Douglas Baldridge has filed that this is false, according to The Mirror.

He said: ‘My client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes.’

Lively’s lawyer previously claimed it’s another move by Baldoni’s team ‘to fuel their relentless media strategy.’

‘Even if one were to take the Wayfarer Defendants’ representation at face value, they have not come close to establishing good cause for their requested relief,’ Lively’s lawyer wrote (per Deadline).

Swift’s 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, is due out October 3, which coincides with her tour schedule – one reason her testimony would fall outside the court’s original September 30 deadline for depositions.

To make that possible, Baldoni’s legal team is asking for a brief extension to accommodate her.

The case, Blake Lively v. Wayfarer Studios LLC, et al., stems from a lawsuit Lively filed last December, accusing Baldoni – her co-star and director – as well as his company and representatives, of sexual harassment and retaliation.

After denying the damning allegations, Baldoni’s camp filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, suing both Lively and her husband, Deadpool icon Ryan Reynolds, as well as publicist Leslie Sloane and her PR firm, Vision PR Inc.

Refuting that he caused Lively ‘severe emotional distress,’ Baldoni began seeking damages of $400million (£323m) in his countersuit following her attempt to ‘destroy’ his reputation and career’.

Lively and Reynolds’ lawyers then filed a notice saying they wished to seek to dismiss Baldoni’s suit, with their legal team labelling the lawsuit ‘baseless’.

All defendants deny the allegations and a trial date has been set for March 2026.

Swift’s involvement is tangential but highly publicised.

Freedman alleged in a now-dismissed countersuit that Blake’s lawyer threatened to leak private messages between the actress and Taylor if the singer did not release a statement supporting her.

In his complaint, Baldoni also claimed that Taylor and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, 48, pressured him into accepting one of Lively’s rewrites for the film after he was summoned to Lively and Reynolds’s New York City apartment.

Mike Gottlieb, Blake’s lawyer, denied the claim, and Lewis J Liman, the judge in the case, granted his motion to strike the letter from the docket in May.

Court filings even included text messages in which Baldoni told Lively her revisions improved a scene, while she quipped back that Reynolds and Swift were her ‘dragons,’ likening herself to Khaleesi from Game of Thrones.

Although Baldoni’s team subpoenaed Swift in May, her representatives slammed the move, emphasising that she had no role in casting, production, or editing, and didn’t even watch the movie until its release.

The subpoena was dropped, but a source close to Taylor has claimed that her friendship with Blake has ‘halted’, adding that the singer ‘wants no part in this drama,’ People reports.

Speculation has swirled among fans that a track from Swift’s upcoming album, Ruin the Friendship, could reference the rift, though Swift herself has said the record was finished during her European tour, before the legal drama escalated.

For now, whether Swift’s testimony happens depends on whether Judge Liman allows the schedule to shift.

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