To paraphrase Taylor Swift‘s ‘Blank Space,” the superstar had a day that was a bit of a nightmare dressed like a legal dream with Justin Baldoni.
Now, just more than 24 hours after the It Ends With Us director-star again sought to drag Swift into his seemingly never-ending docket drama with Blake Lively, the federal judge overseeing the case has put the boot to any deposition from the Eras Tour performer.
At the same time, Judge Lewis Liman delivered a win to Lively. The Another Simple Favor star was granted a 10-day extension on depositions for Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios co-founders Steve Sarowitz and Jamey Heath as the discovery process moves into its final weeks.
“The Wayfarer Parties have filed a response opposing Lively’s request and seeking their own extension of the deposition deadline to the end of October for the purpose of scheduling deposition of non-party Taylor Swift,” the judge, the sibling of director Doug Liman, also wrote in a four-page order filed just now.
“The Wayfarer Parties contend that their requested extension is necessary because Swift’s preexisting professional obligations now prevent her from being deposed within the current discovery window,” he added, summarizing the effort to skip over Swift’s October 3 release of her new album The Life of a Showgirl and have her sit for questioning by lawyers sometime between October 20-25 over these nearly yearlong sexual harassment and retaliation allegations.
As he has in the past, Liman cut to the chase:
“The Wayfarer Parties have not similarly demonstrated good cause for their requested extension. The only justification they have provided for the extension is their assertion that Swift’s preexisting professional obligations now prevent her from appearing for a deposition prior to October 20, 2025. Importantly, however, the Wayfarer Parties have provided no discussion of when they began attempting to schedule the deposition. Discovery has been ongoing in this case for approximately six months. The Wayfarer Parties previously requested Swift’s deposition in May 2025 before ultimately withdrawing the subpoena. They have offered no evidence that they have served a renewed subpoena on Swift. Thus, at most, the Wayfarer Parties have demonstrated that scheduling the deposition now presents logistical difficulties; that does not answer the question of why the deposition ‘“’could not have been conducted earlier.” Having failed to demonstrate appropriate diligence, the requested extension is denied.”
Following a day that saw lawyers for Lively and Swift contradict the assertion from Baldoni’s side that the godmother to one of Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ children had “agreed” to the deposition and the requested extension because of the lead-up to her new album, there was silence from Baldoni’s camp after Liman’s order dropped. Reps for Baldoni did not respond to a request for comment.
For that matter, reps for the recently engaged Swift also did not reply, but that isn’t much of a surprise based on what her side said earlier in the day.
“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,” attorney Douglas Baldridge wrote to Liman on Friday afternoon.
With the trial date of March 9, 2026 looming for Lively’s action against Baldoni and Wayfarer over what actually occurred on the set of IEWU and the so-called smear campaign that erupted around the Sony-distributed film’s premiere, it is unclear whether this will be the last we hear of Swift in the case. In May, Baldoni’s lead lawyer Bryan Freedman tried to subpoena Swift, but as Liman noted today, they put the kibosh on their action after a days-long media frenzy. Later, the Wayfarer team said it got what they needed voluntarily from Swift — who may or may not be on the outs with her old pal Lively. An assertion that Swift’s Baldridge later contested.
Earlier today, Lively’s lawyers called Team Baldoni’s desire to get IEWU soundtrack contributor Swift in the thick of the case just another move to “fuel their relentless media strategy.”
In that context, today was a success for Baldoni, who is now facing other accusations of verbal abuse and harassment from another woman. However, in a very rudimentary approach, the day belongs to Lively, who got what she wanted on all levels, at least this time.
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