When Blake Lively felt the filming of her movie “It Ends With Us” was going off the rails — amid clashes with her director and co-star, Justin Baldoni — the actress enlisted the support of her bestie Taylor Swift.
And, newly released private messages reveal, it may have ruined their friendship.
“It’s felt like I was reading a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees,” Swift told Lively in December2024 after apparent constant complaints about the situation with Baldoni, which devolved into a shocking lawsuit weeks later.
Lively, 38, has accused Baldoni of sexual harassment, infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy, among other claims. (Baldoni has denied these claims.)
The messages — some of them sounding like mean-girl missives — were made public Tuesday in an unsealed court deposition that claimed they were between Lively and Swift.
The movie began filming in May 2023, four years after Baldoni, now 41, optioned Colleen Hoover’s hit novel. But Lively was apparently already annoyed by him before cameras started rolling.
“If you get here w this doofus director of my movie is still here (I’ll be ushering him out, but hope he’s still here) can you do me a huge favor. I need help with him,” Lively wrote Swiftin an April 12, 2023, text exchange.
According to the new court documents, the actress drafted Swift, 36, to be a cheerleader for her revision of the “It Ends With Us” script — allegedly, without having read it — during a meeting with Baldoni at the Tribeca home she shares with husband Ryan Reynolds.
“I’ll do anything for you!!” Swift — the godmother of the couple’s daughters — replied.
Afterward, Lively praised the singer and dissed Baldoni again: “You were so epically heroic today. You making s–t up about me and lenses. And referring to yourself as my doll. This clown falling for all of it … You are the world’s absolute greatest friend ever.”
According to a defamation countersuit filed by Baldoni (and eventually dismissed), he claimed he told Lively that he liked her rewrite — and would have even if she hadn’t enlisted Swift and Reynolds’ support.
“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…” she texted him, according to a filing from Baldoni’s lawsuit.
By April, Swift had upped her support for Lively. As the two messaged about using Swift’s song “My Tears Ricochet” in a trailer for the film, Swift, according to the deposition document, wrote: ‘If Justin was strategic he would be like no Taylor swift in the trailer because that gives you more power over the film, that’s your ally not his.’”
Before the movie was released in August 2024, multiple sources told Page Six that Baldoni had made Lively feel “uncomfortable” on set. The pair avoided each other at the Manhattan premiere.
Meanwhile, Lively was soon planning to take action against her co-star — and it was apparently her main topic of conversation.
In a tense-sounding Dec. 4, 2024, correspondence between Swift and Lively, revealed in the new court documents, the actress wrote:
“Hey, just checking in. I have no reason to ask, but I donno, l’ve been feeling like I should… is everything ok? I felt like a bad friend lately because was such a sad sack who only talked about my own s–t for months.”
Lively told the “Lover” singerthat she had a feeling “something may not be right.”
Swift replied: “No you’re not wrong, but it’s also not a big deal,” noting she had been feeling “a little bit of a shift” in their friendship.
“Yes there has been a lot of the Justin stuff but I’ve been through things like this before and I know how all consuming it is,” Swift said. “It’s more like.. and I feel really bad saying anything about this because your texts have been so nice in their intent but your last few … it’s felt like I was reading a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees.”
Swift claimed that Lively wasn’t acting like the friend she once knew.
“You said the word ‘we’ like 18 times. And it feels awful to be in any way critical of any way you process what you’ve been going through but I just kinda miss my funny, dark, normal-speaking friend who talks to me as herself, not like. A plural unit,” wrote Swift, who was winding down her 21-month Eras Tour at the time.
“When it’s a group I’m hearing from, I feel distanced from you even more than we are geographically.”
Lively responded with a joke:
“Dear Valued Customer, Thank you for your feedback. We at headquarters are reviewing your concerns and will get back to you in a timely manner.”
The actress filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department on December 20, 2024, detailing claims of sexual harassment, a “smear campaign” and creating a hostile work environment during the film’s production; 10 days later, she filed her lawsuit against Baldoni and others, including his publicist and his production company.
Baldoni’s lawyer issued a statement detailing “multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film… if her demands were not met.”
(In the new court documents, Andrea Giannetti, an executive vice president of production at Sony Pictures, which distributed the movie, admitted to calling Lively a “f–king terrorist”after the actress threatened to quit “It Ends With Us” unless her concerns were addressed.)
On December 24, Swift allegedly texted Lively about Baldoni: “I think this bitch knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin.”
Ten days later, Lively filed her lawsuit against Baldoni and others, including his publicist and his production company. That suit, as well as the civil rights complaint, are ongoing.
Reps for Lively, Swift and Baldoni didn’t immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Lively and Swift, who had been friends since 2015 and were often photographed hanging out, have not been seen in public since August 2024. Page Six previously reported the two haven’t been in contact since shortly after the lawsuit was filed
The post How Taylor Swift went from being Blake Lively’s defensive ‘dragon’ to a ‘distanced’ friendship appeared first on Page Six.
