Rebel Wilson has been accused of “revising history” as a defamation case brought against her by a young Australian actor comes to a close.
The legal battles centres on Wilson’s 2024 directorial debut The Deb, a musical about two Australian teenagers attending a debutantes’ ball.
Lead actor Charlotte MacInnes, 27, is suing the Bridesmaids star for defamation after Wilson said in a social media post that MacInnes made and later withdrew a sexual harassment complaint against Amanda Ghost, a producer on the film, in order to further her own career. MacInnes denies making the complaint.
The posts in question claimed that MacInnes had initially confided in Wilson, stating that she felt uncomfortable when Ghost asked to have a shower and bath together, before later recanting her complaint.
MacInnes denies making or retracting the complaint. She said she was not uncomfortable when she and Ghost shared a bath in their swimwear in September 2023 after the producer suffered an allergic reaction when the two went for a swim at Bondi Beach together.
Earlier in the trial, lawyers for MacInnes claimed that Wilson was using the incident as “leverage” during contract negotiations by the film’s producers for more money.
During her closing address in the Federal Court on Friday (8 May), MacInnes’ barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC accused Wilson of a “complete revision of history”, as reported by the BBC.
“She is a fantastical liar who has made up terrible, terrible allegations about multiple people and her own witnesses have discredited her,” said Chrysanthou. “We say Ms Wilson cannot be believed on anything she has said.”
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She noted that Wilson had testified that she told local producer Greer Simpkin about the alleged complaint on the day that it was made to her – only for Simpkin to give evidence to say that she had not heard that Wilson claimed her co-star felt uncomfortable about the incident until it was relayed by Ghost the following week.
Chrysanthou told the court that Wilson had lied to Ghost about receiving a complaint in order to sow discord between her and MacInnes, who is now seeking aggravated damages for the harm to her reputation.
“My client has been unable to eat, unable to sleep, has been distressed … (she) fears what Rebel Wilson is going to do to her next,” Chrysanthou said. “No young woman dreams of being pulled into the spotlight by a celebrity and maligned”.
Wilson’s lawyer Dauid Sibtain SC, however, told the court that MacInnes’s career had not been negatively impacted by the social media posts. He argued that the young actor had changed her story in exchange for professional benefits, including more acting roles through Ghost and a six-figure record deal.
“She’s changed her story, she’s flip-flopped and she’s been given huge benefits,” Wilson said previously, on Thursday (30 April).
Wilson has repeatedly insisted she told the truth in the social media posts, calling the legal battle a “baseless defamation lawsuit”. The actor said: “I am known as a truth-teller.”
It is also alleged that Wilson hired crisis PR team The Agency Group (TAG) – the same one used by Justin Baldoni in his alleged campaign against Blake Lively – to publish websites that attacked Ghost.
Wilson has consistently and “unequivocally” denied any involvement in “conceiving, planning, registering, directing, creating, writing, or posting the content of the websites”.
The Pitch Perfect star was also accused of bullying women who were working on The Deb, a claim she labelled as “absolute nonsense”.
Judge Elizabeth Raper is expected to reserve her decision.
The Deb, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, faced delays in its Australian theatrical release in April due to the legal issues.
