Justin Baldoni claims Taylor Swift supported Blake Lively's vision for It Ends With Us when he disagreed with some rewrites

On Thursday, January 16, Justin Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane. Per People, Baldoni claims that Taylor Swift— who happens to be Lively's close friend— was involved in backing the actress's vision for their 2024 movie, It Ends With Us.

Justin Baldoni's 179-page complaint alleges that after he resisted some of Blake Lively's rewrites for the romance drama, Swift and Ryan Reynolds pressured him into accepting it.

In the lawsuit, the 40-year-old stated that Blake allegedly asked to "take a pass" at the movie's rooftop scene in its pre-production phase. While Baldoni was "reluctant" to let the actress rewrite such a key scene, he "agreed to take a look at what she put together."

Lively's rewrite of the scene appeared "dramatically" different from how it was originally written to Justin Baldoni, who displayed his "mild resistance" to it.

As a response, the Hick actress went "silent for multiple days," later sending him a text message, alleging that his reaction to her rewrite "didn't feel great" to her, Ryan Reynolds, and what Baldoni claimed to be "another megacelebrity friend."

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Justin Baldoni's lawsuit alleges Lively called Taylor and Ryan her "dragons" in a text message

In his lawsuit, Justin Baldoni claims that he was "summoned" to a meeting with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds at their New York City penthouse, where Taylor Swift arrived and "began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script."

Baldoni later texted Lively that while her changes to the script made the scene "so much more fun and interesting," and that he "would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor."

In her response to Justin's text, Blake Lively compared herself to the character of Khaleesi from Game of Thrones, suggesting that Swift and her husband were her "dragons". Lively's message to him read:

"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. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. you will too, I can promise you."

Another association Taylor Swift has with the Justin and Blake-starrer romance drama, is her song— my tears ricochet— which has been used in the movie as well as its trailer.

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Baldoni claims that Lively attempted to "bulldoze" reputations and livelihoods for selfish reasons

Beyond the reference to Taylor Swift, Justin Baldoni's lawsuit claims that Blake Lively and her team shared information that was "unsubstantiated" to the media. A statement by Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, quoted by People, said:

"This lawsuit is a legal action 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."

The statement continued:

"It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret."

Pointing towards Lively's own complaint against Baldoni and his associates, the lawsuit adds:

"Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too."

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Justin Baldoni's lawsuit comes less than a month after the Age of Adaline actress filed a complaint against him, alleging s*xual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign.