Taylor Swift insider who leaked Blake Lively's alleged ‘threat' to release pop star's private texts revealed
Taylor Swift's father, Scott Swift, reportedly went to Justin Baldoni's team with the bombshell claim that Blake Lively threatened to leak his daughter's texts if the pop star did not publicly support her in her ongoing feud with her 'It Ends With Us' co-star.
'Scott Swift did not want his daughter to be dragged into this any further and he voluntarily gave up this information as part of a deal that would include [Baldoni's team] withdrawing their subpoena for Taylor,' an insider alleged to the Daily Mail Friday.
Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman made the alleged threat public in a court filing last week, claiming Lively's lawyer Michael Gottlieb of Willkie Farr brought the demand to Taylor's law firm, Venable, Page Six reports.
The documents alleged Gottlieb 'demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively, intimating that, if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively's possession would be released.' The docs claimed Lively also asked Swift to delete their messages.
Freedman doubled down further in a sworn affidavit, saying he spent an hour on the phone with a 'person very closely linked' to Taylor, who revealed the information. Scott's identity was not disclosed at the time.
Gottlieb, meanwhile, told Page Six, 'We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality.'
An insider backed Freedman Friday, though, telling Daily Mail that it seemed Lively's team 'tried to extort Taylor by threatening to release private information about her so that she would support a narrative that she was not a part of.'
Page Six reached out to reps for Baldoni, Lively, Taylor and her dad but did not immediately hear back.
Scott's reported efforts to protect his daughter come after her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, also pledged his allegiance by unfollowing Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, on Instagram because of the ongoing drama.
Despite all of the back-and-forth about the alleged threats, though, the judge in Lively, 37, and Baldoni's case ruled that those allegations are inadmissable in court, calling them 'improper' and 'irrelevant.'
Baldoni, 41, then promptly dropped his subpoena against Taylor, 35, in what appeared to be a shocking legal move, given Freedman had argued for months that the Grammy winner played a role in Lively's alleged attempts to assert her control over his client's 2024 film.
In Baldoni's $400 million extortion and defamation lawsuit against Lively — which he filed after she sued him for sexual harassment — it was alleged Taylor and Reynolds, 48, were present for a meeting about script rewrites in which the Wayfarer Studios co-founder felt pressured to follow the powerful stars' notes.
'The message could not have been clearer. Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively's 'dragons,' two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him,' Freedman alleged in the complaint.
Despite those claims, an insider hinted to Page Six recently as to why Baldoni's team ultimately chose to drop their probe into Taylor. 'When information is voluntarily received, there is no need for subpoenas,' the source cryptically said. The information now appears to be the claims about the texts.
The 'Lover' singer, for her part, has maintained she had nothing to do with the 'It Ends With Us' drama.
Her rep previously told Page Six, 'Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see 'It Ends With Us' until weeks after its public release, and was travelling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
What are Donald Trump's alleged links to Jeffrey Epstein?
The uneasy history between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is back in the spotlight after Elon Musk threw fuel on his feud with the US President by suggesting he is 'in the Epstein files'. Musk's bombshell claim was littered among a stream of erratic tweets attempting to discredit Trump, as the two former allies locked horns in one of the more embarrassing online skirmishes seen this year. '@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,' Musk wrote. 'Have a nice day, DJT!' No evidence has been produced by Musk to support the allegation. There is no suggestion that Donald Trump was involved in Epstein's crimes. What is known, however, is that Trump and Epstein were photographed together on multiple occasions throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and appeared to move in the same social circles during that time. One video shows Trump welcoming Epstein at a party with a throng football cheerleaders attending in 1992. Court documents also show Trump flew on Epstein's private jet several times, mostly between Florida and New York. A 2002 quote from Trump was unearthed during the Ghislaine Maxwell case, where the billionaire was heard describing Epstein as a 'terrific guy'. 'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,' Trump said at the time. Trump then distanced himself from Epstein, reportedly barring him from Mar-a-Lago in 2004 after Epstein allegedly attempted to recruit a staff member. The two men reportedly fell out over competing bids for real estate in Florida. Attorney-General Pam Bondi has said the FBI is reviewing tens of thousands of Epstein-related documents, with more expected to be made public soon. Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino echoed that on Fox News this week, saying additional files will be released after redactions. Trouble in paradise Musk's swipe comes amid growing hostility over Trump's proposed economic policies. The president accused Musk, who was very recently directing Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, of opposing his plans to cut EV subsidies and raise the federal debt ceiling. Musk responded by saying Trump's administration should 'go ahead, make my day' and cut SpaceX contracts. Musk has repeatedly mentioned the 'Epstein list' in recent months, a vague term often invoked online referring to sealed court documents related to Epstein's criminal activities. While some Epstein files have been released, most remain sealed to 'protect ongoing investigations' and victim privacy. The public record reflects no criminal accusations against Trump in connection to Epstein, and his past association with the financier is not unique among high-profile businessmen of the era. But Musk's sudden 180 on the US President has raised further questions. How did the world's richest man go from dancing around at campaigns, claiming civilisation would collapse if Trump lost the election, to accusing him of being linked to Epstein? Suspicions were multiplied when Musk arrived for a news conference at the Oval Office with a black eye and a black DOGE cap. The Tesla boss told the media it had occurred while playing rough with his youngest child. Trump later claimed Musk went 'crazy' when he learned an electric vehicle 'mandate' was being scrapped. 'Elon was 'wearing thin',' Trump said, declaring he had booted Musk from the White House. 'I asked him to leave, I took away his [electric vehicle] mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY! 'The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon's government subsidies and contracts. 'I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!' The Epstein files In February, a personal address book of Jeffrey Epstein's was released by Trump's Justice Department, which included a new list of celebrities and politicians whom the pedophile financier had in his phone. Among the famous names released by the Department of Justice: Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, actor Alec Baldwin, Ethel Kennedy — the mother of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., supermodel Naomi Campbell and rocker Courtney Love. Thursday's unveiling was comprised of over 100 pages including a contact list that belonged to the convicted pedophile financier. The list is not 'a client list,' but includes names of people on Epstein's vast contact list. While the list of names were revealed, their addresses and contact information were redacted. The vast majority of names on the list — if not all of them — had been previously reported in the years of lawsuits and document leaks in the case. The US Attorney-General claimed the FBI has withheld 'thousands of pages' of critical documents relating to Epstein, demanding the bureau provide 'full and complete' access. In a fiery letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney-General Pam Bondi said she had only received 'approximately 200 pages of documents' which consisted of flight logs, contact lists and victim's names related to Epstein, despite requesting access to the 'full' files. 'I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents,' Ms Bondi wrote in the letter. 'Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.'

News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Sophia Bush details harrowing abuse on the set of huge US show that lasted years
Sophia Bush allegedly suffered 'every kind' of abuse from an older man while working on her dream show. 'I had a workplace ongoing trauma revolving around an unending situation with someone old enough to be my father,' Bush said in Tuesday's episode of the Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky podcast. The actress said the show was on her 'bucket list,' and while she didn't name the title, Bush confirmed that it was a series she signed onto after starring in One Tree Hill from 2003 to 2012. Bush, 42, notably portrayed Erin Lindsay in Chicago P.D. from 2014 to 2017 — leaving after Season 4 due to its alleged toxic work environment. When Lewinsky asked Bush, who has previously discussed being 'miserable' on the set, if she experienced something 'emotionally abusive' on set, Bush described it as 'every kind of abusive.' 'I did the thing I learned to do and said, 'I will not have my integrity diminished by someone else's behaviour. I will be unflappable. I will come to work and do my job.' And I couldn't,' she said. Bush described the last two years on the show as a 'physical hell' before she ended her run on the series. She allegedly suffered horrific symptoms from the stress of the situation, getting a 'spontaneous illness,' waking up 'covered in hives,' having 'really crazy weight fluctuation' and even losing her hair.' Additionally, Bush couldn't sleep due to her 'crippling anxiety.' 'To be hit with anxiety in such a way that I could barely be out of the house. If people touched me in public, I would jump out of my skin,' Bush recalled. 'I couldn't talk to people anymore. I couldn't talk to strangers anymore. I couldn't be looked at anymore.' Bush, comparing the trauma to a 'physical attack,' said she could no longer self-regulate and felt that her body was not her own. 'Because I had to go to work ready for war all the time, I had to learn where to stand to not get elbowed in the ribs or how to block a scene to not be touched. It was just exhausting,' she claimed. Bush said she was 'finally' able to exit the police drama in April 2017 – just three months before the #MeToo movement rocked Hollywood. 'By October [2017], I got a call from an executive apologising for what they'd done and not done,' she claimed. 'And [they] said, 'We're very aware we just made it out of that unscathed.'' Bush continued, 'I was like, 'Glad you did, I'm in so much therapy. I've been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, but I'm thrilled you guys didn't get dragged through the press.'' The TV star admitted that it was a 'weird thing to deal with.' While Bush initially left the show without giving a reason, she later admitted to 'drowning' on set of the NBC show in a December 2017 interview. The following year she shared on The Armchair Expert podcast that she 'felt so ignored' during her stint on the series. 'I feel like I was standing butt naked, bruised and bleeding in the middle of Times Square, screaming at the top of my lungs and not a single person stopped to ask if they could help me,' she said at the time. This story originally appeared on Page Six

News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
KISS fans underwhelmed by Nick Jonas biopic casting
The singer has signed on to play frontman Paul Stanley in the KISS movie, Shout It Out Loud, set to be directed by Charlie's Angels and Transformers director, McG. However fans of the glam-rock group were quick to express confusion and in some cases unhappiness over the appointment of Nick, 32, believing his clean-cut image clashed with the rock and roll aesthetic. "This casting just assures I will never watch this," one person commented on a Reddit post about the casting news, while another simply added, "Oh f**k no" and a third wrote, "Absolutely not, that's awful".