{"id":416803,"date":"2026-04-25T11:49:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/416803\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:49:18","slug":"jada-pinkett-smith-asks-court-to-make-will-smiths-former-friend-pay-her-49000-legal-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/416803\/","title":{"rendered":"Jada Pinkett Smith asks court to make Will Smith’s former friend pay her $49,000 legal bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jada Pinkett Smith<\/a> is asking a judge to make Bilaal Salaam cover the $49,000 in legal fees she racked up fighting claims he made in a December lawsuit.<\/p>\n

According to a motion filed April 20 and obtained by The Times, Pinkett Smith is asking that Salaam pay $49,181.23, consisting of “reasonable attorneys\u2019 fees incurred” in connection with Pinkett Smith’s successful special motion to strike Salaam’s complaint, “plus further fees and costs associated with this motion.”<\/p>\n

Salaam \u2014 Will Smith’s<\/a> former best friend of 40 years who also goes by Brother Bilaal \u2014 filed a lawsuit against the “Bad Moms<\/a>” actor in December, alleging emotional distress and seeking $3 million in damages.<\/p>\n

Salaam claimed that in September 2021, he attended a private birthday party for Will Smith at the Regency Calabasas Commons. According to his lawsuit, he was in the lobby of the movie theater when Pinkett Smith approached him with about seven members of her entourage and threatened him. Salaam’s suit claims that Pinkett Smith told him he would “end up missing or catch a bullet” if he kept “telling her personal business.” She also allegedly pressured him to sign a non-disclosure agreement.<\/p>\n

Read more: Jada Pinkett Smith addresses open-marriage rumor<\/a><\/p>\n

In November 2023, Salaam appeared on the “Unwine With Tasha K<\/a>” podcast and alleged that he walked into Duane Martin’s dressing room and saw Will Smith having a sexual encounter with the “All of Us” actor. He also made claims about Pinkett Smith’s sexual habits.<\/p>\n

Pinkett Smith swiftly responded during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club<\/a>” and said that Salaam started the rumors as part of a broader “money shakedown” and that his claims were “ridiculous and nonsense.”<\/p>\n

“It’s not true and we’re going to take care of it,” she said. “We’re about to take legal action.”<\/p>\n

Salaam beat Pinkett Smith to the courthouse and sued her in December, but Pinkett Smith asked the judge to toss the case in February.<\/p>\n

According to the motion filed this week, the former “Red Table Talk<\/a>” host argues Salaam should pay her hefty legal bills because she “prevailed on her anti-SLAPP motion” and the court struck all allegations relating to media statements “that formed the basis for Plaintiff\u2019s three causes of action, as well as additional allegations regarding a cease-and-desist letter.”<\/p>\n

Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. <\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jada Pinkett Smith is asking a judge to make Bilaal Salaam cover the $49,000 in legal fees she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[182743,321,93,61,60,7582,182744,7584,7583],"class_list":["post-416803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bilaal-salaam","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jada-pinkett-smith","tag-legal-bills","tag-pinkett-smith","tag-will-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}