Justin Baldoni\u2019s lawyers want to depose Taylor Swift next month as they continue efforts to include the pop star in their ongoing legal war with Blake Lively.<\/p>\n
In a filing on Thursday, Baldoni\u2019s lawyers stated that Swift had agreed to sit for a deposition sometime between Oct. 20-25, and asked court permission to extend the deposition deadline for that purpose.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Swift\u2019s lawyer responded on Friday, saying she has \u201cno material role in this action.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFurther, my client did not agree to a deposition,\u201d wrote the attorney, Douglas Baldridge. He added that if she is forced into a deposition she could be available the week of Oct. 20.<\/p>\n Assuming she is deposed, Swift is likely to be asked about any discussions she had with Lively about conditions on the set of \u201cIt Ends With Us.\u201d Baldoni\u2019s team previously got court permission<\/a> to obtain messages between Lively and Swift, after Lively\u2019s team tried unsuccessfully to exclude Swift from the case.<\/p>\n In a filing on Friday, Lively\u2019s team opposed extending the deposition deadline to accommodate a deposition of Swift, questioning the relevance of her testimony and accusing Baldoni\u2019s lawyers of causing unnecessary delay.<\/p>\n The two sides are nearing completion of discovery in the high-profile case.<\/p>\n Lively has sued Baldoni, her director and co-star, for sexual harassment and retaliation, alleging that he and the film\u2019s producers and publicists launched an online smear campaign against her to punish her for raising complaints. A trial is scheduled for next spring in federal court in New York.<\/p>\n Lively has already been deposed. Her team has yet to take depositions of Baldoni or co-defendants Steven Sarowitz and Jamey Heath. In a motion on Thursday, her lawyers asked for an extension of the deadline to take depositions from Sept. 30 to Oct. 10, stating that the Baldoni team has dragged its feet in producing requested documents.<\/p>\n Lively\u2019s lawyers also stated that they expect Baldoni\u2019s team to ask for a 30-day extension for all discovery.<\/p>\n In a response on Thursday, Baldoni\u2019s side said that is not true, and that they are asking for an extension only so that they can take Swift\u2019s deposition during the week of Oct. 20-25, \u201cdue to Ms. Swift\u2019s preexisting professional obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n Baldoni\u2019s side asked the court to extend the deadline solely for the \u201cpurpose of accommodating third-party witness Taylor Swift who has agreed to appear for deposition but is unable to do so before October 20, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n Lively\u2019s team argued that Baldoni\u2019s side did not take any steps to schedule Swift\u2019s deposition prior to this week. Baldridge, Swift\u2019s attorney, also stated that he was unaware of the issue until three days ago.<\/p>\n Judge Lewis Liman will have to decide whether to allow any extensions of the deadline to accommodate late depositions.<\/p>\n Baldoni\u2019s lawyers have opposed Lively\u2019s request for a blanket extension. The two sides previously reached an agreement to hold Baldoni\u2019s deposition on Sept. 21-22, Sarowitz\u2019s on Sept. 15, and Heath\u2019s on Sept. 18-19. Lively\u2019s team argues that Baldoni\u2019s lawyers are defying a court order to turn over Signal messages promptly, and that as a result they need more time to prepare.<\/p>\n Lively\u2019s team has argued that Baldoni\u2019s side has repeatedly dragged Swift into the case in order to attract media attention. Bryan Freedman, Baldoni\u2019s lead attorney, previously alleged that he had heard that Lively was seeking to pressure Swift to issue a statement of support, and that Lively had urged Swift to delete their communications. The judge struck that allegation from the court record.<\/p>\n Baldoni\u2019s team also previously subpoenaed Swift for communications, though that subpoena was later withdrawn.<\/p>\n Updated with to include responses from Swift and Lively to Baldoni\u2019s assertion that Swift \u201cagreed\u201d to a deposition.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Baldoni\u2019s lawyers want to depose Taylor Swift next month as they continue efforts to include the pop…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":221709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[45511,185,120551,171,34615,3571,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-221708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-blake-lively","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-court-permission","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-justin-baldoni","13":"tag-taylor-swift","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115193107437777613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}