The Fresh Prince vs. The Fed Up: Inside the Will Smith Lawsuit

Happy New Year, Queens! We’re kicking off 2026 with a scandal so massive it makes the 2022 Oscars slap look like a playground tiff. Grab your strongest cocktail because the "Fresh Prince" is facing some very stale allegations.

This week, we are dissecting the bombshell lawsuit filed by world-renowned violinist Brian King Joseph. From claims of "grooming" on a global tour to a bizarre hotel room break-in involving a mysterious note from "Stone F" and a bag of HIV medication—we are laying out the timeline, the receipts, and the gaslighting.

But wait… there’s more. We’re also unpacking the $3 million lawsuit filed against Jada Pinkett Smith by former friend Bilaal Salaam. Why are the people closest to the Smiths suddenly speaking out, and why is "catch a bullet" the alleged quote of the year?

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What’s your take, Queens? Is this a case of opportunistic lawsuits or a dark side of Hollywood finally coming to light?

• Vote in our poll: Head to our Instagram @ScandalQueensPodcast to weigh in on the "Stone F" mystery.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:22

Hello, hello, hello. Bet you never thought you'd hear this voice on this podcast again, eh? Welcome back to season two, the long-awaited season two of Scandal Queens, digging the dirt on the celebrity scandal they don't want you to know about. It is me, E.B. Johnson, your favorite celebrity-hating TikTok de-influencer. If it's your first time here, you've probably hate found me through one of your anti-Taylor Swift pages. If not, you're someone who's probably been following me for a long time and you know what this podcast is all about: the celebrity dirt. We're going to be starting this year, 2026, the year of our Lord, uh, on a strong note, because wow, was 2025 packed with celebrity scandals? And wow, is 2026 already packed with them? Um, as it says on the 10, you've already seen the title of the episode. We are going to be talking about Will Smith. He launched a big, huge tour last year based on a true story, and it is now seemingly unraveled into a massive sexual misconduct lawsuit, uh, which has also spiraled another lawsuit, which is going on with his wife. And it is a total freaking mess. Um, I think it's important to talk about because it always is important to talk about, right? We're supposed to believe people that these things happen to. We're supposed to listen, we're supposed to pay attention, and we're supposed to notice the patterns of corruption in these celebrities and the kind of power that they have over people and the media. And that's exactly what we're gonna do. I'm gonna break down this lawsuit for you guys. We're gonna look at the ins and out of it. We're gonna talk about Will Smith, and we're also gonna talk about this Brian King Joseph, who is the very famous violinist who is involved in this lawsuit, and we'll also break down a little bit of Jada Pinkett's lawsuit as well. But before we get into allegations of grooming, a mysterious Las Vegas hotel break-in, and HIV medication allegedly left as a calling card. Let's just run down a few of the biggest kind of stories that are going on right now. So let's do our quick little weekly temperature check on the rest of Hollywood. Cold. Wow. This new year is already started off with a bang and not the good kind. I mean, it's it's January 4th when I'm recording this right now, and we already have a handful of scandals and just like awful little bits of awful celebrity nonsense to kind of run through. Uh, the first big one is Offset and Selena Powell. Offset and Selena Powell and the New Year's mess. Um, just when you thought that all this drama with Offset and Cardi B and they're on again, off again, they're new people, all that kind of stuff was in a good place. Nope. Clout Chaser Supreme Selena Powell posted a graphic video on New Year's Eve, which allegedly showed offset in a hotel bed. I don't really know where the allegedly could be because I saw that video and it was him. She captioned it, offset, you sleepy boy. And uh it's not great. Cardi has been radio silent. She was radio silent, but I think as as I'm recording this now again on the fourth, I saw a video where she was clapping back. Now, I don't know if that's real. It could be AI, who knows? But it just continues to be an absolute mess. And I don't I don't see anything changing in that for 2026. I mean, Cardi's in this new relationship that I think she's pregnant in, which seems very, very, very, very, very, very quick. Um, but who knows? And it's just what a mess. What a mess. Moving on, the second kind of big story that's been making the news. Like Timothy, Chalome, and Kylie. Uh can we not have a break from this PR relationship? Um, the Timothy Chalome and Kylie Jenner, they showed up at the Palm Springs International Film Festival together. That seems to be the only time we see them together, is when there's like an event that they have to be at so that they can be in the media about it. Uh, Timothy got an award. Kylie was there in support, his quote-unquote silent support, but then apparently they were all over each other, making out inside this like really graphic on top of each other PDA. Um, people are trying to put bets on this in the media. They're basically like, how long do you think this romance will last? I don't think it's a romance at all. This whole thing to me is weird and awkward and gross. It feels uncomfortable, it feels like PR. It feels like PR. And I genuinely don't think Timothy Chalamet, like, he very much vibes with the Kardashians, I think. Like when I look at him, I don't see a soul. It's like looking into Courtney Kardashian's face. It's like looking into all the Kardashian's faces. Um, there's not a lot there. So this doesn't really surprise me. Will it, will they stay together through 2026? I don't know. It probably depends on how well the stories perform in the media. Because I also saw on Dumas, I think maybe it's the Dumas uh celebrity gossip website, Kylie's PR people were posting obvious stories on there that said she was single and she was living her best life and she was like with her girlfriends and all that stuff. So who knows? What a dumpster. And much more heartbreaking news um on New Year's Day 2026, Tommy Lee Jones' daughter, Victoria, was found dead in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Now she was just 34 years old, which is oh my god. Talk about hitting home, right? Because I'm 36, gonna be 37 soon. And that hits home. Um, there's there's no like scandalous stuff that's going out around this. This is just really a tragedy. It's heartbreaking. Um, it's very mysterious. There's mysterious circumstances. When I read the latest update, she was found in a corridor of the Fairmont Hotel on New Year's Day. So she like wasn't in her room or anything like that. So it is very, very quite odd. Uh Tommy Lee Jones and his family are asking for privacy, understanding, and truly, truly, truly, I wish the best for them. That's that's like horrible. You don't want people to go through stuff like that. Next up, Idris Elba is now Sir Idris Elba, which I don't know. I mean, that that could be a plus, it could be a negative. It's good to see him recognized, right? It's good to see a little bit more diversity in there. But I think that this was quite a controversial year for the new year honors list because I did see that there were several people that rejected it. There was a woman, I believe she was in England, she might have been in Wales, but she's been doing a bunch of activism for her community. And when she was offered the New Year honor, she rejected it because she said, Why would I take in honors from the people who are damaging my community who I've appealed to to help my community who haven't helped my community? So, you know, mixed bag on that one, but Idris Elba is now Sir Idris Elba. He has been knighted by King Charles and it's official, so watch out. And finally, in the big celebrity news stories, the legendary Barry Manilo gave his fans a scare this week. Um, he posted a selfie from a hospital bed, and he revealed that he has received a lung cancer diagnosis. Ironically, the post was still in very showman fashion. Um, he says he caught it early, he's already planning his comeback, and we're gonna be seeing him in years to come. Uh, it's you can't deny the spirit of that man. So again, hope he gets better. All right, now that we've got all these smaller stories covered, we're gonna get into the big stuff, the main event. We are going to be talking about Will Smith's big alleged comeback year and this lawsuit that might threaten all of it. Now, before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of the lawsuit, it's really kind of important to set the scenes so you understand kind of the setting and where all this is. Um, it all really goes back to the start of last year, 2025, when Will Smith launched a new tour. It was called Based on a True Story Tour, and it was supposed to be his big musical return. There was all these adverts everywhere that showed these like raving crowds and him back to his roots doing all his music and doing his thing. And he was supposed to have all this new music coming out. It was this huge thing. It was supposed to be uh Will Smith's victory lap. It was like the rebuilding after the Chris Rock slap thing. Um, but instead, what we now have is fast forward to December 30th, 2025, yes, less than a week ago. Uh, we now have a huge legal nightmare. I mean, we are talking allegations of grooming, that mysterious Las Vegas hotel break-in. And again, allegedly, HIV medication left as a calling card. It's like the craziest freaking thing. It's an absolute crazy story, which is why I thought it was worth a deep dive. So let's get into that lawsuit. Right. So we've already discussed Will Smith was getting ready to launch this tour in 2025. So in November of 2024, he schedules a meeting with this really famous violinist, Brian King Joseph, who was on America's Got Talent. He went really, really viral. He's all over social media, loved, like, really liked guy, right? Like really bright, really bubbly, really charming. He's he's not completely new to like the music industry and showbiz. Okay. So November 2024, Will Smith schedules a meeting with him because he wants to hire him for the tour. So they meet each other. It goes really, really well. Will's like, yeah, absolutely. Hires Brian King Joseph, the violinist, for their San Diego show that they have coming up. Now, immediately, Joseph, the violinist, said, like, from the time he got hired, Will was super, just like super, super, super friendly with him. Now he says, like, it's obviously very clearly grooming, but the time he was just excited, right? It's like an exciting opportunity. Will Smith showing all this interest and attention in him. But he said basically immediately from that time that he was hired in November 2024, Will Smith was like trying to get him alone and telling him, You and I have such a special connection that I don't have with anyone else, just like really hard, really fast, you know, you know, that kind of kind of almost like love bombing, right? He's calling it grooming now in this lawsuit, but it's kind of love bombing. So Joseph just kind of goes along with it because you're you're you're star-studded, like star-swept, right? Like it's Will Freaking Smith. Um, so he he's just kind of going along with it. They're getting along. He does the San Diego show. Will says that went great. I want you to come on our global 2025 tour, and I'm gonna give you a spot on my new album. I've got new music coming out. We're gonna put you on the new album. So 2025 comes around and they go on tour, okay? This is around March 2025. So they're on the first leg of the tour and they get to Las Vegas. Now, while they're in Las Vegas, Joseph alleged that his room key in his bag went missing for several hours. And he alleged that it was being held by tour management. Eventually he gets it back, okay? And then he goes up to his room, and Joseph, the violin player, says that his room had been opened. He's calling it now unlawfully accessed. But the time he's like, Wow, someone's been in my room. There was no signs of forced entry at all. So someone obviously opened it with a key because it would just be hotel staff and whoever had his room key, which he claims was management at the time. Here's how Joseph said he knows that someone was in his room. He said there was a calling card essentially that was left for him in his room. And here's a breakdown of what he found. It's the weirdest thing. So he comes back into his room after he finally gets his bag back for management and his room card back for management. He goes in the room, he finds wipes and a beer bottle, he finds an earring and a red backpack, and then he finds a note. This is the crazy part, right? Because if you if you saw like wipes in a beer bottle, an earring in a red backpack, you'd be like, oh, maybe someone used my room to come in here and do stuff, right? That would kind of make sense. But this is when it gets super, super weird. Along with those, he finds a note, a handwritten message signed by someone named Stone F saying, Brian, I'll be back no later than 5:30. Just us, heart, like drew a heart next to it. So then it starts to get a little bit more spooky, right? Because it's not just someone's been in his room and used it, someone has written him a message. Brian, that's his name, Brian. The medical evidence to this as well is where they had a whole nother layer. So along with wipes in a beer bottle, an earring and a red backpack, and then the handwritten message that says, Brian, I'll be back no later than 5:30. He finds hospital discharge papers and HIV medication belonging to someone whose name he did not recognize in his room. Ooky spooky, right? Now, this is where the problem really begins for Joseph, right? So he he finds all this stuff in his room, he freaks out, he notifies hotel security, says, Hey, someone's been in my room and all this stuff has been in my room. And he also calls a non-emergency police line, which to me, that kind of that's one of the linchpins. Uh, people are asking a lot of questions, like, why did he wait so many months to file this lawsuit? We'll talk about that a little bit later. But this this moment here when he calls a non-emergency police line also makes me kind of sense the urgency, which kind of you know relates to a more honest story here. So he calls a non-emergency emergency police line, notifies the hotel. He thinks something's gonna be done about it. He expects police to come in and like take everything and management to take it seriously. Nope. According to Joseph's lawsuit, a manager came to him and said, Everyone is telling me that you're telling them that this happened and they're telling me that it's a lie and that you made it up. So why did you make this up? It's like straight up gaslighting. And this is Trayball Studios. He claims it was Trayball Studios. They shamed him, they gaslight him, they said this never happened. You're a liar. What are you talking about? On and on and on and on and on. Five days after this kind of this fallout with the manager, this is like, oh, I've talked to everybody. They said you made it up. What's going on? He gets fired. And the official reason they give for firing him is that the tour is moving in a different direction and they've hired a new violinist and he's no longer needed. Ouch. So now what we're looking at, it was filed December 30th, 2025. So literally less than a week ago. Um, Joseph filed a lawsuit in LA for sexual harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination because in his eyes, he essentially reported sexual misconduct that was going on and he was gaslit shamed and then fired for it, which, yes, of course, that would be unlawful. Now, here's the real kicker, okay? While this lawsuit is going on with Joseph and Will Smith, there is a second lawsuit that has also come up, and that is a lawsuit that is happening between Will Smith, or sorry, Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and one of Will Smith's closest friends. Now, this is a separate$3 million lawsuit that's been fired by Bilal Salam, and that was filed on December 1st, right? So the start of December, and then Joseph, the violin player, was filed at the end of December. But essentially, Bilal Salaam, who has been Will's close personal friend for 40 years, he's suing Jada Pinkett Smith because he alleges she has threatened to kill him if he ever talks about her marriage to his friend Will Smith. What the direct quote that he alleges is that she told him he would quote unquote catch a bullet if she ever found him talking about her marriage to Will Smith. Okay. So where does all of that leave us? In my personal opinion, with a lot of huge freaking questions. My first big question would have to go back to the Las Vegas hotel incident, okay, with the violin player Joseph. Um that is crazy. And there's a lot of things in there which I think kind of add up. When you're going through the list of things that he found in the hotel room, like he comes in, he sees beer bottle and wipes, okay, and then he sees an earring and a red backpack. When I read that, I went, maybe someone on the tour, some some talent on the tour is using his room to, you know, have some illicit affairs that maybe they're not supposed to be having. That would make sense. Then you see the note, which is written to Brian and says, I'll be back later so we can be alone, whatever it was, heart. Okay. And then you've got the medication, HIV medication and hospital discharge papers in the name of someone, Stone F. Stone F. Who is Stone F? We have no, we have no knowledge of this. Of course, Will Smith's party is completely denying everything, but it kind of fits some patterns. Um, as we know, like if you just watch the P. Diddy documentary, they talked about the medication that he was able to get a hold of uh more often than not, and how that medication was in the name of a certain person. It's not unusual for celebrities to use different names for medication or anyone who's got any kind of notoriety. It could be tour managers, it could be producers, it could be like anybody who's around him who's got any level of notoriety. So it's not weird. And I also wonder if perhaps one of them was using his name with women so that they, you know, weren't using their real names. There's there's all kinds of stuff. So um it's very, very weird. Is was Stone F is this a real person? Is this someone who's going to come along in the investigation? Like, what who is this? Or is it a pseudonym used by someone in the inner circle? Now, the second really interesting thing to me is also the timing of everything. Now, I'm 100% like believe victims. I'm not denying. I just wonder why it took so long to come forward. It very well, the answer is probably just as simple as finding someone who was willing to address that kind of behavior, finding someone who was interested, who, yeah. I mean, we we know that when it comes to victims, there's not a lot of justice. Things are not really fair when it comes to them. So that timing is probably more explainable than the timing of two lawsuits coming together at the same time against the husband and the wife. It's very, very interesting that they would all, that they would both happen at the same time. And it does kind of make you wonder is there a larger case that's being built? Like, why are these two lawsuits happening so close together? Especially with my bigger question of timing would probably be Will Smith's friend, um, Balal, because, like, what do you mean? You've been friends for 40 years and you're just now suing her for threatening to kill you? You didn't go to the police about that, or you know, there's just there's a lot of questions more on that end and that lawsuit towards Jada Pinkett Smith for me personally. Like, really, you have to wonder, and that these celebrities play so many, there's so many like dynamics and even their own little political games that are kind of going on in the background of things, and managers and PR people and spin and bib, like all that kind of stuff. But you just have to wonder is it a coincidence that both Will and Jada are being sued at the same time by former members of their inner circle in the same month? And the timing of the lawsuits is also curious. Like, why did you wait until Christmas to do it? That's going to limit your visibility, I think, as well. So there's there's just a lot of questions around this, and I think we'll find out more as time goes on. But it really makes you ask yourself like, is this a case of a superstars team protecting a predator? Like, why is someone else's room being used? Why is there stuff disappearing? Um, or is this just an opportunistic person who's trying to get what was owed to them after or what they expected after being fired? Uh, we'll have to watch the Los Angeles Superior Court very, very closely in 2026 because that is where this is all going to be playing out. All right. So that is the state-of-the-will saga as of this week. It is messy, it is legally dense. And honestly, it's it's just heartbreaking, you know? Like it's so sad to see these celebrities that we can be nostalgic about because I'm nostalgic about it. I loved the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I loved Will Smith's music in the 90s and the early 2000s. I love Wild West, the movie. Unironically, I genuinely enjoy that movie. Okay. I genuinely enjoy it. So it's heartbreaking for those of us who like grew up with these quote unquote West Philly vibes from him to I don't know, it just doesn't seem like having a lot of money and fame really makes one turn out to be a good person. Because even if this stuff that Will Smith's now being accused of isn't true, even if the Jada Pinkett stuff goes nowhere, there's now just been so much unpleasantness around the both of them that it doesn't feel authentic anymore. I think that was one of the big selling points about Will Smith that made us all love him so much is that he seemed he really was able to lean into and play into that authenticity. And it feels now like they both might just be more of the same over-inflated, egotistical celebrities who show us nothing but fake bullshit and pull whatever strings they have to to get the real bullshit buried. Uh which I guess is like the whole point of this podcast. I should be grateful, but it's it's just it's disappointing. It's really, really disappointing because as I always say, I always say this there's no smoke without fire. Something happened, right? The lawsuit wouldn't be happening. A lawyer would not have taken it on to this degree, this huge kind of visibility, if there was not something that they thought they had a chance of winning with, something that they thought had a chance of settling. I mean, you know, this guy could not sit and put in this lawsuit that I found HIV medication. Here were the hospital discharge. This is what was on the thing. Um, so it's just all really, really perturbing, right? And and almost every time with these celebrity stories, you find out that even if it's not as bad as the sensationalized headlines, it's still not freaking great. It's still horrible, and someone has ended up hurt or harmed or cut out or left out in the cold. I mean, like Army Hammer, right? He may not have been an actual cannibal. I'm still kind of on the fence about that. Um, but he did abuse women. He's an abuser, he's an abusive man, and he's tried to go on this as well, a press tour, a comeback tour to try to rebuild his stuff, and he sucks. We can see it now. The mask is gone. So it just it's sad, it's sad because usually when these stories come out, there's some PR person behind it trying to put out a fire for a reason, and it's never, never good. Anyway, I want to hear from you guys. Like, what do you think about this? Do you think this is a shakedown by a former employee? Uh, do you think that we are really starting to see the cracks in the Pinket Smith Empire starting to show? Do you think that that like perfect cookie cutter, lovely, smiley, shiny family uh image is finally at an end? I would really, really, really like to know what you think. You can head over to my Instagram at the Real EB Johnson. I'm gonna have a poll up and I would love to know what you think. Um, do you think this is real? Do you think this is predatory? What do you think is going on? Vote in the poll over on Instagram, or you can head over to TikTok at the real eBay Johnson and hear a little bit more about this story from me there. The cliff notes, essentially. And I'll also be reading the best comments that you guys leave me on Instagram or TikTok on the next show. So make sure you let me know what you think. Go ahead and vote in that poll, and we're gonna read all the results next week. Speaking of next week, you are not going to want to miss it. I'll be moving away from Hollywood royalty to focus a little bit more on some British royalty. We've got some fresh receipts and the ongoing rift between the Sussexes and the palace, and I've got a blind item about a certain pop star's fake engagement that is about to blow up the internet. So, as always, thank you so much for listening to Scandal Queens. And I just know you're going to love, love, love, love, love what I have in store for you this season. So if you love the show, go ahead and leave me a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. It helps more messy people find me, and it drowns out all the poor little Taylor Swifties out there who don't like that I'm allowed to talk about whatever I want. So go over there, leave a five-star review, let people know why you like the show and what you find fun about it. And that's about it, folks. Until next time, follow me on Instagram and TikTok. And remember, keep your secrets closed, keep your receipts closer.