Actress Blake Lively has been left “horrified” that her close friend Taylor Swift has been dragged into her legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
The singer could be grilled by Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman if he chooses to depose her ahead of the planned court case next year. Swift could be questioned for hours on film about her role in the saga, after being mentioned in Baldoni’s countersuit
A source said: “Baldoni’s lawyer will take no prisoners, and the thought of Taylor being subjected to that, is utterly horrifying to Blake.”
In the director Baldoni’s countersuit, he claims Swift was present at a meeting that took place at Lively’s New York penthouse over a re-write of a rooftop scene. Baldoni, 41, claims that during their meeting, Lively attempted to intimidate him by using her relationships with husband Ryan Reynolds and Swift, calling them “absolute titans” as well, as her “dragons.”
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Getty Images for Sony Pictures)Image:
CBS via Getty Images)A text from Lively to Baldoni said: “If you ever get around to watching Game Of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really, we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you”.
Last year, Lively filed a legal complaint accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment on the set of It Ends With Us, as well as embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” with his team to damage her reputation.
But Baldoni is suing the couple for $400m (£326m) damages on claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy following the Gossip Girl star’s original complaint. In response to Baldoni’s legal action, Lively’s legal team have described the lawsuit as “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
Today there was a further twist as Texas crisis communications specialist also decided to sue Lively for defamation. Jed Wallace and his company Street Relations filed the seven million dollar (£5.6 million) lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday.
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AP)It says he had nothing to do with any campaign to harm Lively’s reputation as she alleged in a court filing.
In a filing last week that seeks a deposition from Wallace, Lively alleges he was used by publicists working with Baldoni to weaponise “a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums”.
Wallace’s lawsuit says neither he nor his company “had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation”.
It says the actor’s Texas filing “conceded that Lively has no facts supporting the allegations she made against Wallace and Street”, which is why she now seeks to investigate the extent of his conduct.
It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August.
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