According to reports from The Hollywood Reporter, Blake Lively is issuing subpoenas to Scooter Braun (formerly of Braun Entertainment) and Hybe America, who currently holds the CEO position, as part of her ongoing legal dispute with Justin Baldoni, director and co-star of ‘It Ends With Us’.
Hybe Corporation, the South Korean entertainment conglomerate, holds a share in The Agency Group (TAG), a public relations firm established by Melissa Nathan, a seasoned crisis management expert, who joined forces with Baldoni following the film’s release in late summer 2024. In the ensuing months, Nathan was implicated in a lawsuit filed by Lively, accusing Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer of retaliating against her through social media after she voiced accusations of sexual harassment.
Two days following the court’s decision to drop Baldoni’s $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her spouse Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and The New York Times, Braun has now become involved in a high-profile case.
The initial legal action, initially lodged with the California Civil Rights Commission by Lively, is still scheduled for trial on March 9, 2026.
By issuing a subpoena to Braun and Hybe America, it seems that her legal representatives are trying to acquire more details concerning Nathan, as neither Braun nor his team have spoken publicly about the legal issue at hand.
Previously, Braun and Baldoni enjoyed a cordial relationship, and they even collaborated on a podcast discussing the #MeToo campaign. However, it’s been reported that Braun has not watched the movie “It Ends With Us.
Actress Lively and musician Braun have a mutual acquaintance: Taylor Swift, who has been friends with Lively for quite some time. On the other hand, Braun’s professional transactions regarding his purchase of Big Machine Records and Swift’s master recordings in 2019 caused a public rift between him and another music industry titan.
In a recent conversation, Braun reminisced about the time Swift expressed her distress upon discovering he controlled her catalog, stating it was her “most dreaded outcome” following years of persistent, manipulative bullying she had endured at his hands. This deal prompted Swift to re-record and release almost all of her original six albums, with just two exceptions.
Braun’s remarks followed several weeks after Swift reacquired the rights to her initial six albums, having struck a deal with Shamrock Capital for their purchase.
Similar to Braun, Swift has found herself entangled in the dispute between Baldoni and Lively. She granted permission for one of her songs to be used in Lively’s version of the film, and was potentially required to provide testimony about her involvement in Lively’s modifications to the movie’s opening scene. (In leaked emails between Lively and Baldoni, Lively referred to Reynolds and Swift as her “dragons.”)
As a gamer, I celebrated what Lively’s legal team called a “total victory” on Monday, but Judge Lewis J. Liman of the Southern District left some room for Wayfarer and Baldoni’s legal team, led by Bryan Freedman, to potentially file an adjusted lawsuit regarding specific contractual obligations. Furthermore, the judge refused to compel Freedman’s side to cover the legal fees, although he didn’t rule it out entirely.
In response to the court’s decision, Freedman stated that although the defamation-related claims were dismissed, the court has given us an opportunity to revise four out of the seven accusations against Ms. Lively. This will allow us to present new evidence and more precise allegations. Essentially, this case revolves around false allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation, as well as a nonexistent smear campaign that Ms. Lively’s team finds ‘untraceable’ because they can’t prove something that didn’t occur in the first place.
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2025-06-13 00:24