Will Smith’s alleged friend claims Jada Pinkett Smith threatened he would ‘catch a bullet’ in $3 million complaint

Key points

• In a new civil lawsuit, Bilaal Salaam accused Jada Pinkett Smith of threatening he would “catch a bullet” if he continued “telling her personal business.”

• Salaam, who says he was the “best friend” of Will Smith, accused the actress of launching a “coordinated media smear campaign” against him.

• He alleges that Pinkett Smith was retaliating after he refused to participate in “crisis management” PR for Smith’s Oscars altercation with Chris Rock.

Jada Pinkett Smith is facing serious allegations in a new lawsuit.

Bilaal Salaam, a former associate of Will Smith, accused the Matrix Reloaded actress of intentional infliction of emotional distress in a lawsuit he filed in Los Angeles on Nov. 7, which has been reviewed by Entertainment Weekly. Salaam, who is credited as Will Smith’s assistant on Ali and a production assistant on The Legend of Bagger Vance, alleged that Pinkett Smith and members of her entourage threatened him during a 2021 incident.

EW has reached out to Salaam and representatives for Pinkett Smith and Smith for comment.

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Jada Pinkett Smith in Los Angeles on May 30, 2024

In his complaint, Salaam calls himself Smith’s “best friend” of four decades, and claims that at a private birthday party for the actor in Calabasas, Calif., Pinkett Smith threatened that “if he continued ‘telling her personal business,’ he would ‘end up missing or catch a bullet,’ and demanded he sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) ‘or else.'”

The complaint also claims that Pinkett Smith was flanked by approximately seven of her associates from her entourage during the alleged confrontation, and that one of those associates allegedly followed him to his car “while continuing to issue verbal threats.”

Elsewhere in the complaint, Salaam claims that he rejected a request from actor Duane Martin to help Smith with “crisis management” PR after the King Richard star slapped Chris Rock on stage during the ceremony. The plaintiff says that he “refused” to assist with the alleged PR campaign because “his conscience would not allow him to be involved in any cover-up or deceptive PR campaign” — and also claims that after his refusal, Martin said that Pinkett Smith would cause Salaam “serious problems.”

Salaam then alleges that “individuals closely associated with” Smith and Pinkett Smith launched “a retaliatory campaign” against him, and that “threats escalated” once they learned that he was writing “a whistleblower memoir” about his time working with the couple.

Additionally, after Salaam publicly claimed that he witnessed Smith and Martin having sex years ago on Unwine With Tasha K in 2023 (which both Smith and Pinkett Smith denied), the plaintiff alleges that the Gotham actress “began a coordinated media smear campaign” against him.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2022

Salaam specifically cites Pinkett Smith’s 2023 appearance on The Breakfast Club accusing him of a “money shakedown” and her subsequent claim to TMZ that “we’re suing” Salaam as grounds for his causes of action, claiming that the Madagascar actress “never filed a lawsuit.” He also claims that Pinkett Smith’s public denial of an alleged sexual incident between Smith and another man was a “deliberate effort to discredit” him.

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He also makes several claims of alleged instances in which Pinkett Smith and her associates attempted to “intimidate, bribe, and suppress” him that “constitute extreme and outrageous conduct.”

Salaam claims that as a result of the aforementioned allegations, he has experienced “financial loss, reputational destruction, emotional trauma, physical health deterioration, and the complete derailment of his personal life and career.” He is seeking at least $3 million in special damages, plus general, exemplary, and punitive damages and a public retraction of Pinkett Smith’s statements.

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