Defamation, “lies”, and alleged smear sites: Rebel Wilson’s court case explained
Rebel Wilson is currently in the midst of a high-profile court case in Australia, in which she is being sued for defamation.
It began with her directorial debut of the musical comedy film The Deb, and has now descended into a row over accusations of sexual assault, defamation, social media posts, and alleged smear campaigns in a triangle between herself, a producer, and one of the lead actors in the movie.
So what exactly is going on?
The roots of the case can be traced all the way back to September 2023, when Charlotte MacInness, a young actor in the film, and Amanda Ghost, one of the producers, decided to take a trip to Bondi Beach during a break from filming.
While swimming in the sea, Ghost suffered a rare allergic reaction to cold water, causing her to shake uncontrollably and have welts break out over her skin. Subsequently, the pair headed back to Ghost’s apartment near the beachfront.
Once they had arrived, MacInnes ran Ghost a hot bath, but since the producer had already gone for a shower to warm up, she decided to get in the bath herself. Ghost later joined her in the bath, although they were still both clothed in swimwear throughout.
How did this descend into a court case of defamation against Rebel Wilson?
Wilson came into the incident after being told about the event by MacInness. She claimed that the actor had told her that it had made her “uncomfortable”, but MacInness denies this, saying she only described sharing the bath with Ghost as “weird” and “bizarre”.
MacInness says she never made a complaint about the producer, something refuted by Wilson when she later made a string of social media posts, calling the actor a “liar” for allegedly retracting her statement in an attempt to advance her career.
As such, MacInness is now suing Wilson for defamation over these posts, claiming they have damaged her reputation as she then went on to secure a record deal and a role in a major theatre show in the US, which was also being produced by Ghost.
When giving her own evidence last week in the trial, MacInness said Wilson had “mischaracterised or exploited” the “innocent incident” with Ghost, with lawyers for the actor arguing that she tried to use the alleged incident as leverage against the producer due to an ongoing dispute with her, according to The Guardian.
The actor is seeking aggravated damages and to prevent Wilson from posting on social media about these allegations again in the future as a result.
Wilson has repeatedly denied this first level of accusations against her, but is also faced with a separate allegation of creating smear websites geared at Ghost.
Refuting the claim that she wanted to portray Ghost as an “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell”, Wilson has denied hiring a PR firm to create malicious websites spreading rumours about her, including accusing the producer of being a sex trafficker.
Wilson has confirmed that her US lawyer hired the company The Agency Group to provide assistance in a dispute that she had with her producers on The Deb, but denies the allegation that they were behind the smear websites.
Notably, this is the same company accused of creating a smear campaign against Blake Lively on behalf of Justin Baldoni, as part of their ongoing legal dispute following the film It Ends With Us.
What has Wilson said in her evidence?
When giving evidence herself on April 28th, the Bridesmaids star said that she had no knowledge of a word document from which the accusations against Ghost were allegedly originally sourced from, and claimed anyone could have made it.
Asked if she bullied MacInness and Ghost on the set of The Deb, she blasted the accusations as “absolute nonsense”.
Furthermore, Wilson maintained that she is a “champion of women” and, “If you look over my 25-year career, you can see many evidences of me supporting women.”
Separately, she also added: “Inappropriate behaviour from a person in power to an employee is a serious problem,” before being set to return to the courtroom to give more evidence on April 29th.
The trial is now in its second week and is set to go on for a total of nine days.
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