To paraphrase Taylor Swift‘s ‘Blank Space,” the superstar had a day that was a bit of a nightmare dressed like a legal dream with Justin Baldoni.

Now, just more than 24 hours after the It Ends With Us director-star again sought to drag Swift into his seemingly never-ending docket drama with Blake Lively, the federal judge overseeing the case has put the boot to any deposition from the Eras Tour performer.

At the same time, Judge Lewis Liman delivered a win to Lively. The Another Simple Favor star was granted a 10-day extension on depositions for Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios co-founders Steve Sarowitz and Jamey Heath as the discovery process moves into its final weeks.

“The Wayfarer Parties have filed a response opposing Lively’s request and seeking their own extension of the deposition deadline to the end of October for the purpose of scheduling deposition of non-party Taylor Swift,” the judge, the sibling of director Doug Liman, also wrote in a four-page order filed just now.

“The Wayfarer Parties contend that their requested extension is necessary because Swift’s preexisting professional obligations now prevent her from being deposed within the current discovery window,” he added, summarizing the effort to skip over Swift’s October 3 release of her new album The Life of a Showgirl and have her sit for questioning by lawyers sometime between October 20-25 over these nearly yearlong sexual harassment and retaliation allegations.

As he has in the past, Liman cut to the chase:

“The Wayfarer Parties have not similarly demonstrated good cause for their requested extension. The only justification they have provided for the extension is their assertion that Swift’s preexisting professional obligations now prevent her from appearing for a deposition prior to October 20, 2025. Importantly, however, the Wayfarer Parties have provided no discussion of when they began attempting to schedule the deposition. Discovery has been ongoing in this case for approximately six months. The Wayfarer Parties previously requested Swift’s deposition in May 2025 before ultimately withdrawing the subpoena. They have offered no evidence that they have served a renewed subpoena on Swift. Thus, at most, the Wayfarer Parties have demonstrated that scheduling the deposition now presents logistical difficulties; that does not answer the question of why the deposition ‘“’could not have been conducted earlier.” Having failed to demonstrate appropriate diligence, the requested extension is denied.”

Following a day that saw lawyers for Lively and Swift contradict the assertion from Baldoni’s side that the godmother to one of Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ children had “agreed” to the deposition and the requested extension because of the lead-up to her new album, there was silence from Baldoni’s camp after Liman’s order dropped. Reps for Baldoni did not respond to a request for comment.

For that matter, reps for the recently engaged Swift also did not reply, but that isn’t much of a surprise based on what her side said earlier in the day.

“My client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes,” attorney Douglas Baldridge wrote to Liman on Friday afternoon.

With the trial date of March 9, 2026 looming for Lively’s action against Baldoni and Wayfarer over what actually occurred on the set of IEWU and the so-called smear campaign that erupted around the Sony-distributed film’s premiere, it is unclear whether this will be the last we hear of Swift in the case. In May, Baldoni’s lead lawyer Bryan Freedman tried to subpoena Swift, but as Liman noted today, they put the kibosh on their action after a days-long media frenzy. Later, the Wayfarer team said it got what they needed voluntarily from Swift — who may or may not be on the outs with her old pal Lively. An assertion that Swift’s Baldridge later contested.

Earlier today, Lively’s lawyers called Team Baldoni’s desire to get IEWU soundtrack contributor Swift in the thick of the case just another move to “fuel their relentless media strategy.”

In that context, today was a success for Baldoni, who is now facing other accusations of verbal abuse and harassment from another woman. However, in a very rudimentary approach, the day belongs to Lively, who got what she wanted on all levels, at least this time.

UPDATE (Sept. 12): In an order Friday evening, Judge Lewis J. Liman denied Justin Baldoni’s request to depose Taylor Swift after the current discovery deadline, stating that Baldoni’s team “failed to demonstrate appropriate diligence” after only recently reaching out to Swift’s camp about scheduling the deposition. This means Baldoni has lost his shot at deposing Swift, foreclosing what could have been an intense court battle over whether the pop star would be forced to sit for questioning.

PREVIOUSLY: Taylor Swift‘s lawyers say the pop superstar has not agreed to sit for a deposition in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s bitter legal feud over the movie It Ends With Us, refuting claims from Baldoni’s camp that the star had consented to the sit-down.

Baldoni’s attorneys wrote in a request for a discovery schedule extension on Thursday (Sept. 11) that Swift “has agreed to appear for deposition” but cannot do so earlier than Oct. 20 because of “preexisting professional obligations” — presumably referring to the rollout of her highly anticipated twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, which arrives on Oct. 3.

But Swift’s longtime attorney Douglas Baldridge says in a Friday (Sept. 12) court filing that this is false.

“My client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes,” wrote Baldridge.

Baldoni has been saying for months that Swift’s friendship with Lively makes her a key witness in the lawsuit, in which Lively alleges Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us and then orchestrated a retaliatory smear campaign after she complained.

In June, the federal judge overseeing the legal battle granted Baldoni’s request to access Swift and Lively’s text messages as part of the document discovery process. Now, Baldoni wants to depose Swift.

The current discovery schedule has all depositions concluding by the end of September, in anticipation of a March 2026 trial date. But lawyers for Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, asked for an extension on Thursday for the Swift deposition.

Swift’s reps have previously slammed Baldoni for “creating tabloid clickbait” by dragging the star into the case despite her minimal involvement in It Ends With Us. Baldridge reiterated this position in his letter to the court on Friday, writing, “Since the inception of this matter we have consistently maintained that my client has no material role in this action.”

Lively’s lawyers have similarly lambasted Baldoni for involving Swift in the litigation, writing in their own Friday court response that the strategy is designed “to generate a media spectacle.”

The Lively team is against extending the discovery cutoff to question Swift, saying it’s Baldoni’s own fault for waiting until this week to contact the singer’s counsel about scheduling her deposition.

“The Wayfarer defendants’ lack of diligence, and disrespect for Ms. Swift’s privacy and schedule, is astounding,” wrote Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb. “Ms. Swift is someone whose calendar should be presumed to be packed with professional obligations for months in advance. At any point over the past six months, the Wayfarer defendants could have noticed a deposition, served a subpoena and negotiated an agreeable time and place for this deposition. But they did not.”

Judge Lewis J. Liman has not yet ruled on Baldoni’s discovery extension request.

The fiery legal battle between Lively and Baldoni has been in full force since last December, when the actress brought sexual harassment and retaliation claims against her It Ends With Us co-star and director.

Baldoni vehemently denied the allegations and countersued Lively and her inner circle for defamation, though Judge Liman later dismissed Baldoni’s counterclaims as legally invalid. Now, only Lively’s original allegations are headed toward trial this coming spring.

The Baldoni team has sought to involve Swift since the early days of the case, writing in court filings that Lively weaponized the “influential and wealthy celebrities” in her orbit to gain leverage over him while making It Ends With Us.

This story was updated on Sept. 12 at 2:27 p.m. ET to reflect that Swift has not agreed to a deposition.