Taylor Swift Is Still Backing Blake Lively — The Clue Is In The Life of a Showgirl Poster

Eagle-eyed fans say the It’s Rapturous cover from Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl hides a Blake Lively easter egg, reigniting buzz about the duo’s friendship.

Taylor Swift’s new album just handed fans a fresh batch of clues to obsess over, and somehow we’re back to the question: is she still tight with Blake Lively? Short answer: the tea leaves say yes. Longer answer: there’s an album easter egg, a very specific bracelet, a very messy movie saga, and one song that basically reads like a thesis on sticking by a friend when the internet would rather you didn’t.

The bracelet easter egg everyone’s dissecting

Swifties clocked something intriguing on the alternate CD cover poster for It’s Rapturous: Taylor’s wearing a chunky diamond bangle that looks just like Blake Lively’s custom pink Lorraine Schwartz bracelet. Not just similar — the design appears to be a match for the one Lively wore at the 2024 premiere of It Ends with Us. That piece was reportedly made exclusively for Lively for that night, which is exactly why fans are treating Taylor’s choice as a deliberate nod.

It’s a small detail with big implications, because that premiere and the film’s rollout landed Lively in the middle of a controversy storm — which is where this whole friendship-question saga started.

The messy It Ends with Us backdrop

This is where it gets inside baseball. Lively and director-star Justin Baldoni have been locked in an ongoing legal dispute tied to the movie. Around the internet (and on YouTube channels like The Recap with Julie), you’ll find claims that Lively accused Baldoni of misconduct on set, including sexual harassment; talk of complaints, a meeting to course-correct, and then alleged texts between producers discussing how Lively could be "buried"; even chatter that Baldoni’s side worried about backlash from Swift’s fanbase in contract language. To be crystal clear: a lot of this is contested, still unfolding, and sourced from filings and commentary that fans are parsing in real time. But it fed a narrative that Swift might quietly distance herself from Lively.

Which is why that bracelet on Taylor’s cover felt like a wink that says: still friends.

Then Taylor drops 'Cancelled!' and the internet starts connecting dots

On The Life of a Showgirl, the track Cancelled! landed like a siren. Taylor doesn’t name names, but the lyrics had fans immediately mapping it to Lively — a possibly pointed response to headlines claiming their friendship flatlined. Adding fuel: Lively liked Taylor’s post announcing the album. Not definitive proof, but definitely a vibe.

The fan thesis, condensed

• The song’s early imagery about thinking things would be fine, only to face the wrath of masked crusaders and talk of a grave/hearse — fans tie that to the fallout on It Ends with Us and those alleged producer texts about "burying" Lively.
• Lines about girl-bossing too close to the sun and getting called tone-deaf — that mirrors the criticism Lively took during promo, where her light, jokey interviews clashed with a movie centered on domestic abuse. Old interviews resurfaced and piled on the narrative.
• The chorus torches in: "Good thing I like my friends cancelled" and a fashion-flash line about Gucci. Lively fronted a Gucci fragrance campaign in 2012, which fans flagged instantly.
• There’s also a whiskey sour reference. Lively’s beverage brand, Betty Booze, has flavors meant to echo classic cocktails like a whiskey sour. Again, fans connect the dots.
• Flowers show up in the imagery, which tracks with It Ends with Us marketing leaning heavily floral. On-the-nose, sure — but Taylor rarely leaves her symbolism to chance.
• Mentions of standing by someone before an exoneration had listeners thinking of the 2016 Kanye/Kim saga, when Ryan Reynolds and Lively were reportedly among the friends who stuck with Taylor. Selena Gomez is often named in that group too.
• The song ends on scars and solidarity: being broken, sharper for it, and knowing who your friends are. If you’re trying to send a coded "we’re good" to an old friend? That’s basically skywriting.

The pushback, because of course there is

Not everyone is cheering. Alongside fans celebrating Cancelled! as Taylor planting a flag for Lively, another chunk of the internet isn’t thrilled about a billionaire singing "I like my friends cancelled" right now. Critics point to the sociopolitical climate — Gaza, MAGA, the ongoing fights over Zionism and humanitarian advocacy — and argue the lyric reads as tone-deaf. In other words: even this supposed defense-of-a-friend anthem is polarizing.

What Taylor actually said about the song

Taylor did give a little framing in an Amazon Music intro about what Cancelled! is getting at:

"I’ve been through the whole mass-judgment circus, and it changes how you move through the world. When others go through it, you think about how they might come out smarter. I don’t drop people just because the crowd turns on them. I make my own calls based on how they treat me and what I see them do."

So... are Taylor and Blake still cool?

If you’re going by pop-star code: the matching bracelet, the chorus about liking her "cancelled" friends, the Gucci/whiskey/flowers breadcrumbs, and that album-like from Lively — it all reads like a quiet but firm "we’re fine." Officially, nobody’s naming names, and the legal situation around the movie is still murky. Unofficially, Taylor’s message feels simple: she doesn’t let the internet dictate who sits at her table.

What do you think — savvy easter eggs or overzealous dot-connecting? Drop your take.