It turns out Justin Baldoni was asked to shell out a ton of money early on amid the tensions with Blake Lively — all to ward off any possible online backlash from one of the fiercest fandoms out there: the Swifties!
According to new legal documents obtained by TMZ on Tuesday, the crisis PR firm Street Relations Inc., which is working for the filmmaker and Wayfarer Studios amid the feud, requested more money to fight potential blowback from Taylor Swift fans last August. This was the day after social media users noticed something was off between Justin and Blake after the entire It Ends With Us cast snubbed him at the New York premiere on August 6. And, of course, this was all way before their rift exploded into an all-out legal war!
Related: Why Swifties Think Taylor Swift Is Getting Her Ultimate Revenge On Kanye With New Album!
How much did the firm demand? A whopping $30,000 PER MONTH! Damn! They were that worried about just Taylor’s fans?!
An exhibit filed in the case features an email with the PR executives for Justin from August 7, 2024. Toward the end of the message, his team expressed concern about Blake firing up the Cruel Summer singer’s fans and wanted to cover their bases:
“The social team are now worried about Blake activating the Taylor Swift fan base, which is a major concern. With this in mind and to ensure Justin and the studio are 100% protected moving forward, they have now changed the fee to $30,000 per month due to the uptick in social chatter.”
Another legal document is the invoice from Jed Wallace’s Street Relations Inc. sent to Justin’s studio on August 8, 2024, for that $30K. It’s no wonder that the Jane The Virgin alum has been feeling so much financial strain amid the legal battle! He possibly handed over thousands and thousands of dollars to fend off Tay’s fans! Oof! His wallet must really hurt!
Justin’s team wasn’t wrong to be concerned! Swifties are ride-or-dies, even for Taylor’s friends… until they cross her! Clearly the PR firm had no idea at the time what would come out about the nature of their friendship from Blake’s perspective. Let’s face it, releasing that Game Of Thrones email probably did more than anything else, right? We wonder if they renegotiated once the Swifties turned their ire toward Blake instead…
Fortunately for Justin, the pop star is seemingly not friends with Blake anymore after the actress dragged her into the legal mess. As we said, Tay’s fans are incredibly loyal, so they chose her side over the Gossip Girl alum’s after that whole subpoena ordeal. So his team may not be the ones who need to worry about the Swifties coming after them these days! And Blake’s issues may only get worse once Taylor’s new album is released! We’ll see!
Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments!
[Image via MEGA/WENN, Variety/YouTube]
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