‘Epic fail’: More are starting to believe that Justin Baldoni is using Taylor Swift as a diversion in lawsuit against Blake Lively, including her lawyers

Justin Baldoni legal battle, and everyone is calling it what it likely is: a diversion.

To refresh, Baldoni and Lively have sued and countersued each other. Lively alleges that Baldoni sexually harassed her while filming It Ends With Us, which Baldoni co-starred in and directed. After Lively complained, she says Baldoni and others involved in the production orchestrated a smear campaign as retaliation to discredit her in the press.

Until recently, Baldoni’s alleged plot largely worked. While promoting the film, Lively gained a reputation as both difficult to interview and to work with, and though the book adaptation did well at the box office, her light touch publicizing a movie about domestic abuse turned people off.

Taylor Swift and Baldoni’s countersuit

In response to Lively’s sexual abuse accusations, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, alleging defamation of character. Baldoni’s lawsuit, the director’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said, is based on “an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Lively and Swift are friends, and CNN entertainment correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister recently shared on X a portion of Baldoni’s lawsuit in which the pop star is mentioned, though not by name. According to Wagmeister, Baldoni’s litigation reads, “A famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.” Wagmeister adds she confirmed with a source that Lively’s “famous” friend was indeed Taylor Swift.

In response, Lively’s lawyers said, Baldoni and his legal team “are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni.” Or, as an X comment put it, “The deflecting tactic is an epic fail. Someone needs to remind him what the serious allegations are, & give him a pacifier to stop [the whining,] while his ‘feminist’ a** ponders.” (Before Lively’s allegations came to light, Baldoni was an outspoken “male feminist” covering the topic in a 2017 TED Talk, podcast, and book.)

Wagmeister concludes her X post on the Swift revelation by saying, “All to say, this is getting messier by the second.” In response to Baldoni’s countersuit, Lively reps told THR in a statement, “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the ab attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”

Meanwhile, Swift is connected to the Lively-Baldoni saga in at least one other way: Scooter Braun, a retired music manager whom Swift famously feuded with over her music ⏤ leading to Swift’s “Taylor’s Version” releases ⏤ now co-owns the PR company The Agency Group (TAG), which allegedly Baldoni hired to help drag Lively’s name through the mud.