Can they (red table) talk it out?
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Oh brother. Bilaal Salaam, a self-described “best friend” to Will Smith for nearly 40 years who also goes by the name Brother Bilaal, has accused Jada Pinkett Smith of intentional infliction of emotional distress in a $3 million lawsuit. According to a filing obtained by People and Daily Mail, Salaam alleges Pinkett Smith once confronted him alongside “approximately seven members of her entourage” in the lobby of a hotel he was at for Smith’s private birthday party in September 2021. Salaam claims she said he would “end up missing or catch a bullet” if he kept “telling her personal business” and demanded he sign an NDA “or else,” with her team following him to his car and continuing to make “verbal threats” afterward.
Salaam, who is representing himself in the case, alleges the threats didn’t stop there. Following Smith’s “slap heard round the world” at the 2022 Oscars, Salaam said actor and mutual friend Duane Martin asked him to assist with “crisis management.” When he refused to get involved in “any cover-up or deceptive PR campaign,” he alleges Smith and Pinkett Smith’s circle made retaliatory threats. He also claims he later received more threats for working on a “whistleblower memoir” detailing his experience with the Smiths, as well as for an interview that went “viral.” In 2023, Salaam alleged on Unwine With Tasha K that he had walked in on Smith engaging in a sexual act with Martin years ago. Pinkett Smith denied this on The Breakfast Club, claiming Salaam had tried to engage in a shakedown for money and stating that she and her husband would take legal action. Salaam claims that no such lawsuit was ever filed and that Pinkett Smith’s comments were part of a “deliberate effort to discredit” him. More broadly, due to the alleged actions of Pinkett Smith and her “emissaries,” Salaam argues he has suffered financial loss, reputational harm, emotional drama, physical-health issues, and “the complete derailment of his personal life and career.” Maybe that’s why he felt the only lawyer he could turn to was himself?
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