{"id":475598,"date":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475598\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","slug":"jada-pinkett-smith-asks-court-to-dismiss-3m-lawsuit-that-alleges-she-told-will-smiths-former-friend-hed-catch-a-bullet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475598\/","title":{"rendered":"Jada Pinkett Smith Asks Court To Dismiss $3M Lawsuit That Alleges She Told Will Smith’s Former Friend He’d ‘Catch A Bullet’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jada Pinkett Smith<\/a> has asked a California court to dismiss a $3 million lawsuit filed by Bilaal Salaam, a former friend of Will Smith\u2019s. The lawsuit<\/a>, which was filed in December 2025, alleged that Pinkett Smith threatened him at a hotel. Here\u2019s what we know.<\/p>\n

Why did Bilaal Salaam file a lawsuit against Jada Pinkett Smith?<\/p>\n

Salaam alleged Pinkett Smith threatened him at a hotel after he walked in on her and Will Smith engaging in a sexual act with actor Duane Martin. Salaam made these claims during an episode of the Unwine With Tasha K podcast, as People<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Salaam alleged that Pinkett Smith then confronted him and threatened him in the lobby of the Regency Calabasas Commons in September 2021. The complaint alleges that Pinkett Smith told Salaam that he would \u201cend up missing or catch a bullet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salaam also alleged that he was contacted by Martin, who said Smith and Pinkett Smith needed urgent assistance with \u201ccrisis management\u201d following Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Salaam said he was asked to perform tasks he thought to be \u201cillegal, unethical, or morally compromising.\u201d He also said that he was threatened that he would face \u201cserious problems\u201d if he refused.<\/p>\n

Salaam also alleged he received threats from individuals in Smith and Pinkett Smith\u2019s circle and that he was the target of a \u201cretaliatory campaign\u201d launched against him, according to People. He said he faced additional threats after they found out he was writing a memoir about his time spent with the Smiths.<\/p>\n

Jada Pinkett Smith has denied Bilaal Salaam\u2019s claims<\/p>\n

Pinkett Smith called the claims \u201cnonsense\u201d in an interview with The Breakfast Club. She also expressed wanting to sue Salaam over the claims. In a motion to dismiss Salaam\u2019s lawsuit, Pinkett Smith alleged the suit violated California\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute. The anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation Act \u201cprovides a procedure for weeding out, at an early stage, meritless claims arising from protected activity,\u201d according to the motion, which was obtained by People.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff voluntarily gave media interviews claiming \u2013 without evidence \u2013 that he personally witnessed her husband, actor Will Smith, engaging in sexual acts,\u201d the motion also reads. \u201cPlaintiff\u2019s allegations were false, uncorroborated, and made to generate attention as part of an ongoing public campaign of harassment directed at Defendant and her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion adds that Salaam publicly shared the contents of a cease and desist letter received from the Smiths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat letter was not a public statement at all. It was classic pre-litigation activity \u2013 confidential legal correspondence sent by counsel in anticipation of litigation \u2013 and is independently protected under California law,\u201d the motion indicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jada Pinkett Smith has asked a California court to dismiss a $3 million lawsuit filed by Bilaal Salaam,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-475598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}