"Massive victory for team Baldoni": Perez Hilton reacts to Judge Liman's latest ruling on Taylor Swift's involvement in Blake Lively's legal saga

On Wednesday, June 18, 2025, Judge Lewis J. Liman, who is presiding over the legal conflict between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, denied Lively's motion for a protective order.

As per Deadline, the motion for a protective order filed by Lively's team on June 13 stated that Taylor Swift is not "central to Ms. Lively's claims" and is "irrelevant" to Baldoni's team. The motion also stated that Baldoni's team was continuously demanding text messages between Swift and Lively.

However, on June 18, Judge Liman ruled that the Wayfarer Parties can now officially access messages and emails between Lively and Swift that are relevant to the ongoing case.

Reflecting on the Judge's ruling, American columnist and blogger, Perez Hilton, remarked,

"So the only way to interpret today's ruling is a massive victory for team Baldoni."

In his June 18 letter of the ruling, Judge Liman stated that Lively’s team argued that the opposing counsel was only trying to sway public opinion and build a "public relations narrative outside of court" by demanding text exchanges between Lively and Swift, rather than to obtain relevant claims or gather useful legal information.

However, Judge Liman asserted that the court had issued an order to protect sensitive information, which may be shared without fear of it being leaked to the public and the media.

"That order was designed precisely to ensure that parties may share sensitive information that may be 'only tangentially related to the underlying cause of action' without fear that it will be leaked to the press," Judge Liman said.

Along with this, Judge Liman added that Blake Lively had previously represented that Taylor Swift had information about the complaints, as well as discussions about the work environment in the It Ends With Us set, and other issues.

The judge stated that due to this, the recent ruling was reasonable and designed to gather information that would either prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims.

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In response to the ruling, Blake Lively's team claimed that Baldoni's team is trying to "exploit" Swift’s popularity

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the set of "It Ends with Us" (Image via Getty)

In a statement to People Magazine, published on June 18, 2025, a representative for Blake Lively responded to Judge Liman's ruling that denied Lively's motion for a protective order.

"We will continue to call out Baldoni’s relentless efforts to exploit Ms Swift’s popularity, which from day one has been nothing more than a distraction from the serious sexual harassment and retaliation accusations he and the Wayfarer parties are facing," Lively's representative said.

Lively's representative told the outlet that the court’s protective order ruling relies on the admission of Wayfarer Parties' claims that they had not received anything from Taylor Swift. The representative emphasized that this was "exactly the opposite" of what their "insider" had claimed two weeks back.

They further stated that "Baldoni's desire to drag Taylor Swift" into this issue can be dated back to August 2024, when their crisis PR team, led by Melissa Nathan, had included Swift in their "'Scenario Planning' document" that Lively has included in her court filing. The representative added that in the document, the Wayfarer Parties allegedly referred to Taylor as a "bully" and strategized to influence the pop star's fan base.

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As new details emerge, Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are set to face each other in court in March 2026.