Blake Lively’s best friend Taylor Swift found herself unexpectedly mentioned in Lively’s legal complaint against It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni.
In the complaint filed December 20, Lively, 37, accused Baldoni of orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her. According to the documents via People magazine, the 34-year-old international pop star was allegedly targeted to support a narrative that Lively’s inner circle engages in bullying tactics.
A “scenario planning document” drafted by Baldoni’s public relations team at TAG PR, lead by crisis management expert Melissa Nathan, proposed that “TAG could ‘also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in [Lively’s] circle like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to ‘bully’ into getting what they want.’”
In another instance, Nathan allegedly texted PR executive Jennifer Abel about the influence of Lively’s fanbase, which overlaps with Swift’s.
The text reportedly read, “[Lively] does have some of the [Swift] fanbase so we will be taking it extremely seriously.”
Notably, TAG PR’s major stakeholder is a company run by talent manager Scooter Braun, per The New York Times. Braun infamously acquired Swift’s master recordings in 2019 before selling them without her knowledge. This prompted Swift to re-record her first six albums so that she would own the masters again.
