LOS ANGELES, Jan 2 \u2014 Will Smith is being sued by a musician who toured with him, with the performer alleging sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination.<\/p>\n
US entertainment magazine People reported that professional violinist Brian King Joseph filed a complaint on December 30 in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, naming Will Smith, 57, and Treyball Studios Management, Inc. as defendants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the filing, Joseph alleges that Smith \u201cwas deliberately grooming and priming Mr Joseph for further sexual exploitation\u201d after inviting him to join Smith\u2019s global tour, Based on a True Story: 2025, in November 2024.<\/p>\n
The complaint describes what it calls a \u201ctraumatic series of events\u201d that allegedly took place during the tour in March 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph claims that while staying at a Las Vegas hotel, he discovered signs that someone had entered his room despite there being no evidence of forced entry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Items he allegedly found included \u201cwipes, a beer bottle, a red backpack, a bottle of HIV medication with another individual\u2019s name, an earring, and hospital discharge paperwork belonging to a person unbeknownst to\u201d him.<\/p>\n
Joseph also alleges there was a handwritten note left behind that read, \u201cBrian, I\u2019ll be back… just us,\u201d accompanied by a drawn heart and signed, \u201cStone F.\u201d The filing claims this constituted evidence \u201cof a sexual threat of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, Joseph says he \u201cfeared that an unknown individual would soon return to his room to engage in sexual acts\u201d with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After reporting the situation to hotel staff, a local non-emergency police line and Smith\u2019s management team, the complaint alleges that a member of the tour management later \u201cshamed\u201d him and informed him that his services were no longer required.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another violinist was allegedly hired to fill his role on the tour.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit states that the incident caused Joseph \u201csevere emotional distress, economic loss, reputational harm, and other damages,\u201d including \u201cPTSD and other mental illness as a result of the termination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph previously competed on America\u2019s Got Talent season 13 in 2018, where he finished as a top-three finalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In December 2024, he shared an Instagram video of himself performing onstage, noting in the caption that it was his first night touring with Smith.<\/p>\n
People reported that it has reached out to a representative for Smith for comment.<\/p>\n
The new lawsuit follows another recent legal matter involving Smith\u2019s family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On December 1, former associate Bilaal Salaam, also known as Brother Bilaal, filed a US$3 million (RM12 million) lawsuit against Smith\u2019s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, alleging she verbally threatened him.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES, Jan 2 \u2014 Will Smith is being sued by a musician who toured with him, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,207548,207546,447,134,62716,207547,207549,207545],"class_list":["post-386864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-based-on-a-true-story-2025-tour","tag-brian-king-joseph","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-los-angeles-superior-court","tag-sexual-harassment-claim","tag-treyball-studios-management","tag-will-smith-lawsuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}