Justin Baldoni allowed access to Blake Lively and Taylor Swift’s texts in ‘It Ends With Us’ Case, judge rules

A judge has allowed Justin Baldoni to obtain text messages between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift as part of the discovery process in the court case between the former It Ends With Us co-stars.

The legal battle between the two kicked off last December, when Lively filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint with the California Civil Rights Department against Baldoni. In the filing, she accused the director of “inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour” and claimed he was trying to “destroy” her reputation.

Baldoni has denied all accusations and countersued on January 16, including Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds and publicist Leslie Sloane in the suit. He attempted to sue them for $400million (£295million) and claims that the actress tried to extort him. In the aftermath of Lively’s suit, Baldoni was dropped by his talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) and also had a women’s solidarity award rescinded.

On June 4, Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Lively’s claims of emotional distress. On June 9, the same judge dismissed Baldoni’s entire lawsuit, on the grounds that her accusations of sexual harassment were legally protected and therefore immune from suit. However, Liman has allowed Baldoni to amend and refile a couple of allegations relating to interference with contracts.

Yesterday (June 18), Liman ruled that Baldoni would be able to obtain messages between Lively and Swift during the discovery process, despite Lively’s team asking to have the request blocked.

The judge said (via The Independent): “Lively herself has identified Swift as someone likely to have knowledge about complaints or discussions regarding the working environment on the set of It Ends With Us”.

The ruling continued: “Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film, among other issues, the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims”.

It Ends With Us released last August, and was a box office success, making over $350Million (£260.7Million) worldwide.

This is a developing story.

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