Crazy new development in the IEWU/Justin/Blake lawsuits.
So first, at the beginning of May, Taylor Swift was added to Baldoni's witness list to be subpoenaed in the lawsuit. Blake, Ryan, and their legal team immediately moved to squash it.
Someone - not sure who, but it's either Baldoni's team, Blake's team, or Taylor's own team - said that the only discussions Taylor had with Blake about the film were in regards to licensing "My Tears Ricochet" for the soundtrack. (I think it might've been Blake's team as part of their move to squash the subpoena.)
Then, Baldoni's team filed new documents alleging that Blake (or Blake's lawyer) was blackmailing - or trying to blackmail - Taylor Swift into supporting her in the lawsuit. Allegedly Blake has kept ten-ish years of texts, messages, and emails with Taylor that she was threatening to release if Taylor didn't immediately release a statement supporting Blake in all of this.
At some point in all of this - I'm not clear on the timeline or if it was part of the new papers - two things happened:
Baldoni's paperwork revealed that Taylor's team issued written 'cease and decist'-ish notification to Blake's team over the alleged blackmail/extortion attempts. and
It was leaked that Blake had sent Taylor instructions to delete their entire text/email history.
Blake and her team immediately denied the allegations, calling it abusive and categorically false.
There's been a couple of theories floating around about how Baldoni's team found out about the blackmail attempt and today it was revealed their source is...drumroll please...Scott Swift. Taylor's father.
Allegedly, of course, because it hasn't been confirmed.
If this is all true, then it's such a self-pwn. Not only does being friends with Taylor give Ryan and Blake so much legitimacy...Taylor is smartly vengeful and this is absolutely going to bite them in the butt ten ways to Sunday. Not only does Taylor write very personal songs with revenge lyrics, Taylor also owns Blake's kid's voice (the kid does the introduction on "Gorgeous," a Reputation song) and conceivably she's given the kid credit so Ryan and Blake are making some money on that - meaning if Taylor rerecords "Gorgeous" for Reputation TV, then she can replace the kid's voice and that's the end of that gravy train. (So something to watch for if/when Reputation TV is released.)
Anyway, as of this afternoon, Baldoni's team dropped the subpoena against Taylor so Taylor no longer has to give testimony or participate in the trial, but the damage to Blake and Taylor's friendship is already done. Given how protective Taylor is of her privacy, her reputation, and her name - I'd be very surprised if they remain friends. I personally see Blake and Ryan getting Karlie Kloss'd, but we'll see.
(Not to mention Travis stopped following Ryan on social media too. I don't give follows/unfollows much stock but this basically suggests to me no more box seats and KC football games for Ryan and Blake.)
