Members of Justin Baldoni’s team once expressed fears Blake Lively would find a way of successfully “activating the Taylor Swift fan base” to his disadvantage.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly on Wednesday, August 13, a member of Baldoni’s crisis team sent an email regarding “social and digital mitigation and remediation.”
In the email, specific efforts to boost search engine optimization efforts are listed, including “monitor and report forums, threads, sites, links and more that are working against Wayfarer Studios.”
Other efforts include “changing the overall narrative and helping keep it on track” while also working “to remove links that are harmful to Wayfarer Studios, Justin and the narrative alongside the appropriate teams.”
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At the end of the email, a staff member claims the social media team has asked for an increase in fees.
“The social team are now worried about Blake activating the Taylor Swift fan base, which is a major concern,” court docs stated. “With this in mind and to ensure Justin and the studio are 100 percent protected moving forward, they have now changed the fee to $30,000 per month due to the uptick in social chatter.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni’s team for comment.
In response to the court docs, Lively’s spokesperson told Us, “There is an overwhelming amount of evidence documenting the smear campaign instigated by Justin Baldoni, [his team members] and the rest of the Wayfarer Parties. All you need to do is look at [his publicist’s] texts, Baldoni’s responses, and Jed Wallace‘s ‘services’ from incredibly damning emails like the one [mentioned].….“
According to court documents, Baldoni’s legal team sent a letter to a judge on Monday, August 11, asking the email to be “permanently sealed.”
Lively and Baldoni’s legal drama began in December 2024, when the actress accused her It Ends With Us costar and director of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment and purposefully creating a smear campaign against her.
Lively proceeded to sue Baldoni, his publicity team and a series of other defendants, alleging that she was retaliated against for the sexual harassment allegations.
Baldoni strongly denied the allegations and countersued Lively. In June, a judge dismissed his lawsuit against the actress.
On July 31, Us confirmed that Lively began her deposition. Her case against Baldoni is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in March 2026.
The public case has taken a toll on Lively’s friendship with Swift. While the pair used to be very close friends, things have changed over time.
“Taylor’s biggest issue seems to be protecting herself emotionally and legally,” an insider previously told Us in May. “She’s always been someone who values loyalty, and right now, she’s navigating how to preserve that while also setting boundaries in a complicated, high-stakes situation.”
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After news broke that Swift could be subpoenaed, a representative for the pop star slammed Baldoni’s lawyers for involving her.
“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,” Swift’s rep said in a statement to Us on May 9. “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 source close to the matter later told Us that the summons for Swift was dropped “because information was voluntarily provided” to Baldoni’s legal team.