Blake Lively is well aware of who her true friends are. Recently unsealed text messages between the "It Ends With Us" star and her best friend, Taylor Swift, have come to light, shedding light on a conversation they had with director Justin Baldoni. In the texts, which were obtained by E! News on January 20 and included in court documents, Lively expressed her outrage at Baldoni's apparent lack of familiarity with Swift's music.
"The most outrageous part for me is him saying to you that he doesn't know pop culture," Lively wrote to Swift. "It makes me more mad than anything he's done to me." The 38-year-old actress, who is suing Baldoni for sexual harassment and retaliation on the set of the Colleen Hoover adaptation, continued, "His entire brand is about dismantling toxic masculinity. He monetizes it. He does TED talks! But he says that to you. Not only is it so rude, but it's untrue."
Lively referred to Swift as "being both the most popular artist alive and one of all time, but also the most respected and awarded." She added, "Popularity doesn't normally coincide with laurels. In very few cases it does. Steven Spielberg, for example. There's one."
Lively then questioned if Baldoni, who denies all the accusations against him, would have "felt comfortable" telling someone like Spielberg that "he didn't know his work." "You would never make a point to say to Steven Spielberg about his work that you don't know it because you don't know pop culture," she wrote.
The "Gossip Girl" alum also made reference to Swift's 2022 honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University, saying, "I honestly want to retroactively take you out to dinner to celebrate that. You deserve to be studied. You are a human masterclass. F--k. Yes. They see it."
Lively then said she would stop "digging up hatchets," before adding that she loves Swift and gets "more protective about your hearts than mine sometimes." "I'm so much less forgiving when it comes to someone messing with someone I love than when someone messes with me," she said, according to the docs. "I'm done. I just love you and am so ecstatic for you. And grateful to you for today. That was stupid fun."
For her part, Swift had replied to Lively's earlier text, in which the actress said she "won the lottery" having a friend like the "Fate of Ophelia" singer. "I WON THE LOTTERY," Swift responded, per the court docs. "You are the COOLEST PERSON IN THE WORLD and you like me!!"
Lively had also thanked Swift for her help during the conversation with Baldoni, noting that she had shared the entire situation with husband Ryan Reynolds. "You were so epically heroic today," Lively texted to her, according to the docs. "I recapped every moment to Ryan. I kept remembering stuff—You making s--t up about me and lenses. And referring to yourself as my doll. This clown falling for all of it. But also resisting it." She added, "You are the world's absolute greatest friend ever."
As Lively explained in her July deposition, she had texted Swift "you don't have to read" the "It Ends With Us" script, but clarified in the Jan. 20 filing that the text was so her friend didn't feel "pressured." "I sent Taylor the script on her way to my apartment because Justin was still there, and I asked her to read them," Lively said in the deposition. "I told her she didn't have to, I didn't want her to feel pressured to do that, but I hoped that she would."
As for Baldoni, his lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a Jan. 21 statement to E! News, "As stated all along, and reflected in our clients' motions, as well as in messages from Sony discussing Ms. Lively's behaviors, the evidence does not support the claims as a matter of law."
"A simple read of the newly released message exchanges make the truth abundantly clear," Freedman continued. "We remain confident in the legal process and clearing the names of all of the Justin Baldoni parties."
