Overview
- Jada Pinkett Smith asked a Los Angeles judge to make Will Smith’s former friend, Bilaal Salaam, pay roughly $49,000 in attorneys’ fees tied to her successful bid to strike parts of his lawsuit.
- The court previously removed major portions of Salaam’s emotional-distress claims under California’s anti-SLAPP law, which lets judges toss weak lawsuits aimed at protected speech.
- The fee request does not end the dispute, as other claims remain, and court calendars show a May case management conference and a separate hearing on the fee motion.
- News reports differ on the status of the fees, with some outlets saying a judge already ordered payment and others, including the Los Angeles Times, describing a pending motion.
- Salaam seeks $3 million over alleged threats tied to a planned memoir and the 2022 Oscars fallout, claims Pinkett Smith denies, and his restraining-order request was denied in February.