TMZ: Taylor Swift learned that Blake Lively has been ‘leveraging her name’ for a while

The past six weeks have been full of drama, lawsuits, accusations, leaked texts, leaked voice memos and leaked footage from Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Some people have already begun to detach themselves from the drama of it all, and I’m not sure if Blake and Justin can keep this up for another year. There was one gossip thread which I was curious about, and curious to see how it would play out in the coming months. That would be Blake Lively texting Justin Baldoni late one night and referring to herself as the Khaleesi and calling Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift her “dragons.” Blake’s text came after Taylor and Ryan apparently tried to persuade Baldoni to use “Blake’s rewrites” on some scenes for It Ends With Us. Baldoni took the khaleesi text as what it was, an implied threat that Blake was going to get her way.

For weeks now, Taylor Swift has avoided saying anything about Blake or Justin or any of it. Taylor also hasn’t been seen out with Blake since last fall. Now TMZ says that Taylor really doesn’t appreciate being dragged into this whole chaotic legal situation, and she really doesn’t appreciate Blake leveraging her name to pressure Baldoni.

Taylor Swift feels she was used by Blake Lively in her war with Justin Baldoni, and she resents Blake calling her one of her “dragons” and leveraging her name.

As we reported, there was a critical meeting at Blake and Ryan Reynolds’ NYC penthouse with Justin to discuss a scene that Blake had rewritten for “It Ends with Us.” Justin has said the meeting got super heated, and he felt ambushed because Ryan and Taylor showed up.

But a well-connected source close to Taylor tells TMZ … Taylor came to Blake’s apartment at the time Blake told her to, not knowing anyone else would be there. In other words, Taylor had no idea there was a meeting going on with Justin.

The source goes on to say … Justin was about to leave after the 2-hour meeting as Taylor walked in, and she was introduced to him for the first and only time. We’re told all Taylor said to Justin was how excited she was to see the movie because he was her friend’s boss. Our source says Taylor believes Blake timed her meeting with Justin so Taylor would arrive before he left and is baffled by Blake later characterizing her as her “dragon.” The source adds, “It’s weird to say that about a friend.”

And there’s more … the source says Taylor is also learning Blake has been inappropriately leveraging her name for a long time, like telling a young actress that Taylor “cast her,” which simply did not happen.

But, one source close to Blake has a different take, telling TMZ … Blake believes the relationship is “not strained” with the two still talking regularly. Another source close to the situation says Taylor was pissed about the extent to which she was involved, and specifically she was angry about the “dragons” remark … but Blake has since apologized, they had a good cry and hugged it out.

[From TMZ]

I wonder, I really do. On one side, people close to Taylor aren’t running to TMZ with this kind of info. On the other side, it actually sounds pretty reasonable that Taylor would be like “WTF?” when she read Blake’s dragon text. The detail about Taylor arriving at Blake’s apartment when Blake asked her to come is interesting too. I wonder how Taylor’s publicist Tree Paine is managing this tricky situation.

Interestingly, TMZ wasn’t the only outlet to get a sus Swift exclusive on Thursday. Us Weekly ran a piece called “Taylor Swift Had No Creative Involvement in Blake Lively s It Ends With Us Amid Lawsuit Sources.” Multiple sources tell Us that: “Taylor has always been Blake’s friend, but Taylor doesn’t have any involvement in the case. She wasn’t part of the movie. Taylor was not a producer on the film and had no creative involvement.” Ah… there are concerns in the Swift camp because Baldoni’s lawyers are threatening to depose Taylor and ask her about the dragon text and the meeting in which (Baldoni claims) Taylor pressured Baldoni to use Blake’s rewrites.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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31 Responses to “TMZ: Taylor Swift learned that Blake Lively has been ‘leveraging her name’ for a while”

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  1. Talie says:

    It feels more like she doesn’t want to be deposed so is distancing. Nevertheless, this is dark since she is godmother to, what, 3 of their kids? Celebrity friendships are so fickle and strange. But I think we all know this will never make it to court – unless Blake and Ryan just want to completely ruin their reps and never work again. They are getting hit way too hard to continue for another year on this track.

  2. Kate says:

    Taylor is godmother to Blake’s kids and they have been consistently seen together for fifteen years.

    If one of my best friends told someone that I was her dragon I would probably tease her about the reference (or ask her if she was bombed when she said it) but mostly I’d be like “Yeah that’s right – I do have her back.”

    This wouldn’t be a make it or break it on a friendship for me. But I can see how Taylor wouldn’t want to be dragged into the legal drama.

    • North of Boston says:

      I feel like this crossed the line, though, since it wasn’t just speaking to a social circle. BL invoked Swift’s name in a power play in a work situation that could have legal involvement.

      I have my friends’ backs, but if one of them manipulated me like that, got me to their place under false pretenses and then leveraged my cred, standing in my work world, reputation for some work drama, power play? I’d be pissed, and it would chip away at the trust between us.
      Don’t manipulate me and don’t drag me into your drama without my permission. *Especially* if I’ve got my own big stuff going on.

      • Becks1 says:

        Yeah I am kind of going both ways here. I can see Taylor thinking “yup, I am her dragon and I have her back,” and I can also see Taylor not liking being dragged into a work-related dispute, ESPECIALLY if she had no idea it was happening. Like if this is how it played out – that Blake called Taylor, said can you come here at X time, and then Justin was leaving and ran into taylor and interpreted her presence there as support for Blake in the particular work dispute (not just overall support), and Taylor had no idea she was being used that way – I can see Taylor feeling exactly like that, like Blake was using her.

        But I can also see this being more like Blake saying to Taylor “hey I need some BFF time because I’m going through something rough on this movie” and then Taylor just happened to run into Justin.

        The Khaleesi text though makes it seem like it was more about leveraging Taylor’s status then wanting her emotional support.

        Either way I think Taylor is going to try to stay as far away from this publicly as she can.

      • Meg says:

        Isn’t Taylor also godmother to Jamie kings kid? Not sure they’re still close either?

      • Megan says:

        I wonder if Taylor was notified not to destroy any documentation and is getting her side out before it goes any further.

    • Smart&Messy says:

      Now I question why Blake wanted Taylor to be the kids’ godmother.

  3. ML says:

    Do I think Taylor would be chill about being called a dragon or being mentioned in the JB lawsuit? Not really. However I do think that if she feels BL is right, she’s absolutely going to help her. TMZ doesn’t seem great on Taylor sources? At one point they were reporting on a Brittany Mahomes feud, which wasn’t the case. Taylor just distanced herself publicly, which might be the case here as well.

  4. Jais says:

    They seem like close friends so I’d assume they’re fine regardless of what TMZ claims. That said, I’d imagine Taylor would also like to not be deposed.

    • mblates says:

      i don’t know. i can kind of seeing it being fine until it becomes public knowledge? especially with a lawsuit involved. it’s so hard for me to guess what’s a breaking point vs. what you would normally expect to get out. like what’s your line when you live in the public eye so much. it’s so strange to me. also lively has such bad style. i live every individual piece of her outfit above, but they don’t go together. it’s like she thought brown + brown + brown = outfit

      • wordnerd says:

        lol it’s like she’s got the same closet as Cher Horowitz, but it’s broken and colorblind. (Cher would NEVER)

  5. TN Democrat says:

    Settle. Settle. Settle. No one wins in court even when they win because of spin, spin, spin. (Look at the weeks/months of amped up smears Harry has endured since accepting a huge settlement from the Murdoch empire). No one is going to have a career after this if this keeps getting dragged through the magat biased court of public opinion.

  6. Peaceful Warrior says:

    Uh oh. Blake about to get frozen out.

  7. Loretta says:

    It sounds like their friendship Is over.

  8. Bella DuPont says:

    Have you read his own lawsuit/response? If you haven’t, you should. He has an awful lot of receipts. Some absolutely shocking stuff.

    Blake is a full blown liar and I suspect a psychopath, full stop. Which is tragic for “#metoo”. So many real victims will suffer because of her and her sadistic husband.

  9. Andy Dufresne says:

    @Carissa, Someone made that comment too on TikTok and referenced the movie “Disclosure” with Demi Moore and Micheal Douglas.

  10. Bella DuPont says:

    Yup. I actually believe BOTH Ryan and Blake were the ones sexually harassing him, not the other way around.

    Have you seen Ryan’s text response back to Justin’s sweet initial message? It ends on a surprisingly sexual note. And then he became *obsessed* with Justin on so many levels. Viciously trolling him from so many angles, on so many platforms and making all these weird suggestions, like asking if he could be his new Dad/new best friend (because Hugh Jackman is getting old)….The whole thing is so fucking bizarre and scary.

    • Miranda says:

      Oh shit, so the episode of Family Guy where Ryan Reynolds moves to town and becomes obsessed and flirty with Peter was actually predicting the future?

  11. Fina says:

    Agree on that text message being cringe. If we reverse the situation, if he had written something like this to her there would be an outcry. There was also a text she sent to him about her a****le and suppositories. When I read that one, I was like: why would you send this to a work colleague? And again if a man sends that to a women, puh. This was meant as reply to Carissa

  12. Harla says:

    I’ve only been following this situation here on Celebitchy so all I know about it is what I’ve read here and I have to say that it’s always bugged me that Ryan was included in the meeting between Blake and Justin. I mean in what world is a husband included in his wife’s business meeting especially if said husband is a powerful figure within that business community and in that case he’s being used as obvious pressure to get the other person to capitulate.

  13. VilleRose says:

    Taylor hates bad publicity, she made a whole album called Reputation after the whole Kanye fiasco. I can totally see her being frustrated her name is being associated with this insane lawsuit, especially if she feels like Blake used her for leverage to get Justin to kowtow to her about the writing changes. Apart from contributing a song to the movie, I don’t think Taylor was involved in anything else?

    Also that never with teeth text is just so weird and creepy. At this rate, I think there was bad behavior on both sides. Blake may have felt uncomfortable being on set and Justin may have been inappropriate but it’s starting to look like it’s not just a sexual harassment situation. I won’t speculate more than that but I’m not sure how this trial can wait until 2026. The judge threatened to speed up the trial if both sides couldn’t stop the mudslinging in the press and I think that’s what should happen!

  14. Lady Digby says:

    Is it goes to court does the Judge render the verdict or does a jury decide? Also up thread commentators talk about an out of court settlement. Does that mean both parties back down, agree not to duke it out in court and issue some kind of bland statement?

  15. MrsBanjo says:

    It’s pretty wild that right after TMZ published this, they had Baldoni’s lawyer on their Two Angry Men podcast. Consider the source.

  16. kirk says:

    “Any man making being a feminist his entire personality” – what? Justin Baldoni was the director and a producer on ‘Five Feet Apart’ – a movie about cystic fibrosis that I saw on Netflix. He’s also been an actor in other movie and TV series that I haven’t seen, so feminism doesn’t appear to be his whole personality.

  17. Kate says:

    The idea of Taylor “just stopping in” to Blake’s when Justin happened to be there is laughable. Her being asked to come by at that time would be the reality. Organizing her movement with her bodyguards at a late time of the evening for Blake (a mother of four) who is also busy filming a movie. It’s not by accident. Taylor would not have been kept in the dark about what situations were going on during filming and why she was being beckoned.

  18. DeepfriedDallasite says:

    I’ve only heard bits and pieces of this lawsuit, but from what I’ve heard Blake Lively is not coming out as a rose here (imo). Her and Ryan Reynolds seem really weird as a whole, he gives me controlling weirdo vibes, she gives me mean girl energy at every turn. I won’t even start on them getting married on a plantation. That has left a bad taste in my mouth for years (if you’re interested in what life was actually like on a plantation, The Whitney Plantation in Louisiana is an excellent resource). I don’t see this going to trial though, it will likely be settled by year end with NDAs for all involved.

  19. Jaded says:

    Money, power and fame can’t buy diplomacy, tact and integrity. Blake and Ryan are a classic example of this — they are both handling this like vain, tinpot tyrants who think their status as “Hollywood royalty” (I hate that expression) gives them permission to stomp all over someone’s reputation. And for what good reason? I think they’ve gone wayyyyy too far this time. It’s not that Baldoni was totally innocent but it’s like Lively and Reynolds deliberately led him like a lamb to slaughter. I’m sure TS doesn’t appreciate getting dragged into this train wreck and I wouldn’t blame her for lying low until it blows over.

  20. Jilliebean says:

    I also feel stories from TMZ are aimed at pitting women against each other all the time (from friends to siblings to mom/daughters) … from their trashy “who’d you rather” to this…

    So SUS Side-eye to their sources…

    However, if this guy is a douche and treated my friend the way BL says he did…. Yeah I would go full dragon on that guy!!! (Regardless if she named dropped me or not)

    A dragon is a dragon…

  21. QuiteContrary says:

    This situation is so complicated that I honestly don’t what to think, so I’m going to wait for a judge to sort it out.

    Taylor must get tired of being used, though — if that’s even what happened here. TMZ isn’t exactly a reliable source.