Sept. 12 (UPI) — Taylor Swift has agreed to sit for a deposition in the legal battle between actress Blake Lively and actor and producer Justin Baldoni, according to court documents.
Swift has agreed to the request from Baldoni’s legal team but is not available until Oct. 20, which falls beyond the Sept. 30 deadline imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman.
Lawyers for Baldoni have asked for an extension from Oct. 20 to Oct. 25 to depose Swift, who will be unavailable because of “pre-existing professional obligations.”
The 35-year-old pop icon is releasing her 12th album The Life of Showgirl on Oct. 3 and is “unable to do so [attend a deposition]” before the court-imposed deadline at the end of the month.
Liman has yet to rule on the extension request.
Lively, 38, is suing Baldoni, her co-star in the film adaptation of Colleen Hooover’s romantic novel It Ends With Us, for alleged sexual harassment on the movie set. Lively also contends the 41-year-old and his fellow Wayfarer Studios producers launched a smear campaign against her following the accusations.
Baldoni filed a countersuit but the judge dismissed those claims this past June.
Lively has already given a deposition in the case, while Baldoni has yet to be deposed.
Swift was not involved in the film, although one of her songs was used. She was, however, close friends with Lively and her husband, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds.
At issue in Swift’s deposition will likely be anything the pair said or wrote about conditions on the film set.
Baldoni’s legal team at one point tried to subpoena Swift, a move that was not well received by the pop star’s team. The filing was later withdrawn.
In the most recent court filing, Lively’s legal team told the judge they expect Baldoni’s lawyers to ask for a 30-day extension to the court proceedings, beyond the Sept. 30 deadline.
“Ms. Lively misleadingly implies the Wayfarer Parties seek a blanket thirty-day extension of the discovery cut-off date,” Baldoni’s lawyer wrote in the filing.
“In fact, the Wayfarer Parties requested an agreement solely to take the deposition of Taylor Swift during the week of October 20-25.”
The trial is slated to begin next March.
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