Taylor Swift has claimed she will only be ‘forced’ into Blake Lively’s legal drama if called on by the courts.
The pop singer was once close friends with the Gossip Girl star but recently appears to have distanced herself from Lively amid her legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
Lively launched a lawsuit against her it It Ends With Us co-star last December, accusing him of sexual harassment and of allegedly participating in a ‘smear campaign’ against her – which he denies.
Baldoni then filed a countersuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million in damages, though this was dismissed by a judge in June.
But amid Hollywood’s dramatic lawsuit, attention has shifted onto Swift and how her friendship with Lively could be unearthed in court.
It has since been reported the singer had agreed to sit for a deposition, according to court documents from Baldoni’s legal team, where she will likely be quizzed about her conversations with Lively, while she was filming the movie as early as next month.
The pair sharing a hug in February last year (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
However, Swift’s lawyer has hit back at the swirling speculation of her involvement, asserting that she has ‘no material role’ in the case.
Her attorney also refuted Baldoni’s claim that Swift had agreed to a deposition, adding that she would only provide one if US District Judge Lewis Linman would extend a deadline for her to provide testimony.
J Douglas Baldridge stated further that Swift would only comply ‘if she is forced into a deposition’ by the court, but would only be able to attend during the week of 20 October due to her schedule.
Baldoni’s attorney had said earlier this week that she requested an agreement to take the deposition in late October due to her alleged ‘preexisting professional obligations.’
Lively is in an intense legal feud with her co-star (Raymond Hall/GC Images)
Ellyn S. Garofalo said: “Wayfarer Parties requested an agreement solely to take the deposition of Taylor Swift during the week of October 20-25 due to Ms. Swift’s preexisting professional obligations.”
The attorney had also asked the court to change its scheduling order ‘for the sole purpose of accommodating third-party witness Taylor Swift.’
Meanwhile, Lively’s attorney wants the judge to deny the deadline extension and has accused Baldoni of ushering Swift into the litigation ‘to generate a media spectacle.’
Lively’s attorney Michael J Gottlieb said Baldoni’s team ‘repeatedly sought to bring Ms Swift into this litigation to fuel their relentless media strategy.’
“In this latest effort, the Wayfarer Defendants assert—though, notably, without evidence—that Ms Swift has supposedly ‘agreed’ to sit for a deposition sometime between October 20-25 (some three weeks after the close of fact discovery in this matter),” Gottlieb wrote in his letter to Judge Linman.
Baldoni’s legal team had previously said Swift had agreed to the deposition (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Vital Voices Global Partnership)
The lawyer also said Baldoni’s team has ‘not come close to establishing good cause’ for the requested extension and that they had not notified Swift’s team with details about the deposition until earlier this week, further accusing them of an ‘astounding’ lack of diligence and disrespect to Swift’s privacy.
It’s the latest to come out of the feuding lawsuits between the pair that have waged on in New York federal court for almost a year.
UNILAD has previously contacted Lively, Swift, and Baldoni’s reps for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Noam Galai/Getty Images for MTV/SONY PICTURESTopics: Taylor Swift, Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Hollywood, Celebrity
