{"id":504048,"date":"2026-02-27T23:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504048\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:25:13","slug":"will-smith-demands-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-be-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/504048\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Smith Demands Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Be Dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          Will Smith<br \/>\n                          Asks Judge to Toss Sexual Harassment Suit<br \/>\n                          &#8230; Calls It a &#8216;Money Grab&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                        Published<br \/>\n                              February 27, 2026<br \/>\n                            7:27 AM PST<br \/>\n                                                                      |<br \/>\n                                                                Updated<br \/>\n                                  February 27, 2026<br \/>\n                                12:19 PM PST\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260227_7450c1ad3e044f2eaa1b640557e3d8c7\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:1ddc849a-1974-470c-a58e-1066ed65aa14\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7450c1ad3e044f2eaa1b640557e3d8c7_md.jpg\" alt=\"will smith and brian king joseph getty 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>12:18 PM PT &#8212; Brian King Joseph&#8217;s lawyer tells TMZ &#8230; &#8220;A jury\u2019s ultimate determination matters more to us than Mr. Smith\u2019s opinion of this case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/people\/will-smith\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Will Smith<\/a> is asking a judge to throw out the sexual harassment lawsuit against him &#8230; with his lawyer alleging that the filing is just a desperate attempt to shake the star down for cash.<\/p>\n<p>Remember &#8230; violinist Brian King Joseph filed a lawsuit against Smith last month, in which he claimed he returned to his hotel room in Las Vegas and found a note reading, &#8220;Brian, I\u2019ll be back&#8230;just us,\u201d which was signed by \u201cStone F.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260102_5f0eac22c17c4e38b4427f9af4640acd\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:1ddc849a-1974-470c-a58e-1066ed65aa14\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5f0eac22c17c4e38b4427f9af4640acd_md.jpg\" alt=\"Violinist Brian King Joseph getty\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2026\/01\/02\/will-smith-violinist-sex-harassment-retaliation\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">also said<\/a> that he found &#8220;wipes, 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 Plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In the motion to strike, Smith&#8217;s team argues Joseph admits he doesn&#8217;t know who &#8220;Stone F&#8221; could be &#8230; but, he&#8217;s inexplicably filed a suit against Smith and his company, Treyball Studios.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, though Joseph claims he was invited to join the tour, Smith says he was hired only on a per-show basis and wasn&#8217;t promised a position in the band.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260227_f6351f2ee57e484ca6f035f4bb6d4cda\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:1ddc849a-1974-470c-a58e-1066ed65aa14\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f6351f2ee57e484ca6f035f4bb6d4cda_md.jpg\" alt=\"will smith getty 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Joseph and Smith were never alone together, the filing states &#8230; so, Smith&#8217;s lawyers say it&#8217;s unclear what Joseph meant when he said he was allegedly &#8220;grooming&#8221; him.<\/p>\n<p>Smith&#8217;s team is hoping the judge will grant their motion to strike &#8230; but, they also state in the lawsuit they&#8217;re ready to provide witnesses who will explain Joseph wasn&#8217;t invited to continue on with the group because he &#8220;behaved erratically, was difficult to work with, and made the other members of Mr. Smith&#8217;s band feel uncomfortable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"media-link image-block__link js-track-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hulu.com\/series\/tmz-presents-michael-jackson-30-fatal-seconds-9c6cd4cc-0d7f-4d16-8cc0-48b4c7b86be1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4b574ef424304995a32d02d1bfd4372c_md.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Jackson-HULU-INLINE\" width=\"728\" height=\"410\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-16by9\"\/><br \/>\n                                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Smith&#8217;s side claims this is a &#8220;frivolous lawsuit&#8221; and an &#8220;attempted money grab.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve reached out to Joseph&#8217;s lawyers &#8230; so far, no word back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Smith Asks Judge to Toss Sexual Harassment Suit &#8230; Calls It a &#8216;Money Grab&#8217; Published February 27,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-504048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}