Blake Lively is not alone.
Written records from Jenny Slate and others show that Justin Baldoni gave a lot of women the heebie-jeebies.
Now, we’re seeing a text message in court records where Taylor Swift weighs in.
She’s, uh, not mincing words when it comes to what she thinks of the guy.
‘I think this b–ch knows something is coming’
On Tuesday, January 20, unsealed text messages from Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal battle shed light on yet another person who didn’t care for the guy.
Taylor Swift had texted a particularly heated line about the It Ends With Us director.
“I think this bitch knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin,” Taylor wrote, according to NBC News.
Lively’s attorneys have confirmed the text’s content. The texts are from a December 4 & 5, 2024 conversation.
However, Baldoni’s team claims that the text was discussing the then-upcoming New York Times article exposing his smear campaign. Team Lively disputes that assertion on the context.
To be clear, Swift was not part of It Ends With Us.
She licensed a song for the film but had no other professional involvement.
Personally, however, she had one tie to the film — her friendship with Lively.
Team Lively commented: “The newly unsealed, damning documents show the consistent reaction numerous women, cast, crew, executives, partners, co-host and even his own PR team had working with Justin Baldoni.”
That line is not merely a reference to Taylor’s text. A lot more came out this week.
‘Justin is truly a false ally’
Perhaps most jarring of all came statements from Jenny Slate that, in no uncertain terms, made it clear how she felt about Baldoni.
“This has really been a disturbing shoot,” she wrote in her own text messages in 2023, “and I’m one of many who feel this way.”
Slate continued: “Blake and I have both complained directly to Ange [production executive Andrea Giannetti] at Sony (and they agree w us btw).”
She roasted him, describing: “Justin is truly a false ally and I’m unwilling to do anything that promotes the image that he’s crafting as a ‘male feminist’ … like … honestly I have no words to describe what a fraud he is.”
Slate obliterated Baldoni, writing: “I honestly have never ever encountered anything like this dude. He’s the biggest clown and the most intense narcissist.”
Even the author of It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover, had her own written account of wanting to avoid the dude at the premiere event for the film.
“Am I going to be comfortable if Justin is there?” she asked, as if rephrasing someone’s question.
Hoover continued: “No, things are beyond uncomfortable at this point.”
Actress Isabela Ferrer also spoke in a deposition on Baldoni referring to an intimate scene as “hot.” Sometimes, that’s genuine feedback in a creative project — but that’s not how it came across.
“It didn’t feel appropriate for a work environment,” Ferrer expressed. Rather than a note on her acting, she commented that it instead felt “personal.”
The chorus of complaints paints a worrisome picture
Any one person can “give the ick” to any other person. It happens. Sometimes, the personalities are incompatible, the vibes are bad, and people just butt heads.
But that doesn’t mean that one person might not actually — and perhaps unintentionally — be repeatedly committing misconduct in the workplace.
As we’ve seen, Lively is far from the only woman to have taken issue with Baldoni.
Some may argue that women are simply echoing Lively’s claims, but that’s not what the timeline of events is adding up to.
Remember, Jenny Slate’s texts come from the year before any of the drama went public. And she filed her own grievance over a separate issue during production.
It is likely that Baldoni sees himself as a good guy who’s being misunderstood. But it seems clear that women who have worked with him see him very differently.