Perez Hilton is challenging a subpoena issued by Blake Lively's legal team in her ongoing lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, her director and costar in the 2024 filmIt Ends With Us. Yahoo spoke to the celebrity blogger this week ahead of the Thursday hearing where he hopes the court will quash the subpoena, arguing that it will compel him to reveal his sources and other confidential information in Lively's quest to prove Baldoni ran a smear campaign against her. Lively is accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment andlaunching a smear campaign against herafter she raised concerns on set — allegationsa New York Times exposérevealed in December 2024. Baldoni has denied the claims and accused Lively, as well as her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of attempting to take over his film. Since then, the internet has taken sides — and Lively has faced intense backlash from Baldoni's supporters, many of whom allege she's lying about experiencing sexual harassment. Lively claims the criticism is part of a Baldoni-led smear campaign, while Baldoni's camp says the backlash is organic. Hilton is one of the many creators making content that portrays Lively in a negative light. In August, Lively filed court documents accusing Hilton of creatingmore than 500 disparaging articles and posts about herwithout reaching out to her representatives for her side of the story. Hilton oftenrefers to Lively by derogatory nicknames, including "Litigious Lively" and "Blackface Blake," the latter a reference to aprior scandal theGossip Girlalum has been associated with. Hilton wassubpoenaedalongside right-wing internet personality Candace Owens and Andy Signore of Popcorned Planet — all of whom have portrayed Lively negatively in their coverage. YouTube has also been subpoenaed separately, a spokesperson for Lively confirmed to Yahoo. Hilton told Yahoo that he initially made a positive video about Lively before reading more into the case and changing his mind. These subpoenas seek contracts, messages and other materials that could reveal if Baldoni's team was providing information, payment, or direction to these creators. Hilton, a longtime celebrity blogger whose real name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., told Yahoo that he believes the subpoena is "payback" for his negative coverage. Hilton argues that, as a journalist, he should not be required to disclose his sources, which he says the subpoena would require him to do. On Thursday, a Las Vegas court will hear his case. Instead of using his longtime lawyer Bryan Freedman — who happens to be representing Baldoni in the case against Lively, — to represent him in court, Hilton is representing himself to save what he said would be more than $50,000 in legal fees. Hilton told Yahoo over the phone that he believesNevada state laws, andother legal precedentshould protect him from having to comply with the subpoena as a journalist. There is no federal law protecting journalists from cooperating with subpoenas, but many state and federal courts have recognized some version of so-calledreporter's privilege,which is the view that the First Amendment should, in certain limited circumstances, protect journalists from being forced to reveal confidential sources and other reporting materials in court.According to the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, courts have historically allowed certain individuals to opt out of testifying in court if they can make the case that the demand for all evidence available would conflict with societal interests. In addition to his view that he should be protected as a journalist from having to produce documents for this case, Hilton insisted that he was never involved in an alleged smear campaign against Lively. "I was not part of any retaliatory smear campaign," Hilton said. "I was not told by anyone to write negative stories about her. I was not paid by anyone to write negative stories about her. I was not promised any favors or anything in exchange." A spokesperson for Lively told Yahoo News of the subpoena: "Subpoenas are not accusations of wrongdoing. They are tools for gathering admissible evidence in federal court. There is no silencing of content creators, they are obviously making their views known." The statement continued: "This is a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and a number of other Wayfarer defendants and we are simply seeking information to aid in our fact gathering." This month, a judge unsealed text messages from Baldoni's team, which alleged Wayfarer Studiospaid social media specialist Jed Wallace $90,000across three months in 2024 for "creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change narrative and stay on track." Lively's team claims this fee was to stoke backlash against the actress at Baldoni's request, however Wallace, who is now suing Lively for defamation, stated he was merely hired to track Baldoni's social media at the time.