Taylor Swift can be deposed, but has no role in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni litigation, lawyer says
NEW YORK AP Singer Taylor Swift can answer questions in October if she is forced from attorneys involved in the sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit actor Blake Lively brought against Justin Baldoni stemming from their roles in the movie It Ends With Us but she doesn t have much to offer her lawyer reported Friday Attorney J Douglas Baldridge noted in a letter to the New York federal judge presiding over the dispute that we have consistently maintained that my client has no material role in this action Further 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 if the parties were able to work out their disputes Baldridge mentioned Lively sued Baldoni last December alleging sexual harassment Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios countersued Lively and her husband Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds accusing them of defamation and extortion A judge dismissed Baldoni s declares in June Attorney Matthew Bruno representing Lively and citing the period when depositions can be taken nearing an end complained in a letter to the judge Friday about Baldoni attorneys calling it grossly irresponsible to delay scheduling the deposition of a witness of this kind until the last minute Bruno stated a late-October deposition of Swift and subsequent necessary delays could jeopardize a March trial date We do not consent to any depositions let alone depositions of third parties with only tangential relevance to the states or defenses in this development being taken weeks after the close of fact discovery he wrote In a letter on Thursday Baldoni s lawyers explained they were not seeking a month-long extension of deadlines to interview prospective viewers but wished only to depose Swift who could only submit to a deposition from Oct to Oct due to Ms Swift s pre-existing professional obligations They reported Swift had agreed to appear for a deposition but only after Oct In her lawsuit Lively accused Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a multi-tiered plan to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and Reynolds addressed repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior by Baldoni When Baldoni s countersuit was dismissed attorney Bryan Freedman announced in a message that Lively s indicates that she was sexually harassed on the film set and then subjected to a secret smear campaign intended to taint her reputation were no truer nowadays than they were on the previous day It Ends With Us an adaptation of Colleen Hoover s bestselling novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence was issued in August exceeding box office expectations with a million debut But the movie s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni Lively appeared in the film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and the TV series Gossip Girl from to before starring in films including The Town and The Shallows Baldoni starred in the TV comedy Jane the Virgin directed the film Five Feet Apart and wrote Man Enough a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity Source
