Rebel Wilson has stood by her assertion that she is a “champion of women” amid an explosive legal war with the star and producer of The Deb, her directorial debut.
The Deb‘s lead actress Charlotte MacInnes is suing Wilson for defamation in Australia, and the Pitch Perfect star gave evidence for the first time on Tuesday as part of a nine-day trial.
MacInnes alleges that Wilson damaged her reputation by claiming that she was a victim of “inappropriate behaviour” by The Deb producer Amanda Ghost, and then colluded with Ghost to cover up what took place. Wilson maintains that MacInnes complained to her about Ghost’s conduct.
Wilson was softly spoken under cross-examination by Sue Chrysanthou, MacInnes’ barrister, during the hearing on Tuesday. Chrysanthou accused Wilson of bullying MacInnes, Ghost, and The Deb‘s writer, Hannah Reilly, despite claiming in her affidavit to be a “champion of women.”
“That’s absolute nonsense,” Wilson responded. “If you look over my 25-year career, you can see many evidences of me supporting women,” she added.
Wilson also denied being involved in the creation of websites targeting Ghost with smears, which included calling the producer the “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Lawyers for MacInnes have accused Wilson of hiring Melissa Nathan, the American publicist of The Agency Group (TAG), to launch the websites.
MacInnes’ case includes messages that originally emerged in the It Ends with Us dispute between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, in which PR executive Nathan tells former colleague Katie Case that “Rebel wants” a “really harsh” website about “Amanda.”
Wilson has consistently denied this, telling a U.S. court last year that she “unequivocally” played no role in “conceiving, planning, registering, directing, creating, writing, or posting the content of the websites.”
Under questioning in court on Tuesday, Wilson said her U.S. lawyer Bryan Freedman hired The Agency Group to assist her with a legal dispute with Ghost, but denied any involvement. “You know you’ve lied about this topic for a year haven’t you?” Chrysanthou asked. “No,” Wilson replied.
Last week, former TAG employee Case told the Sydney court she was provided a “fully drafted” document of what was wanted for the website, but she did not know who authored the document. Metadata showed that Camp Sugar, Wilson’s production company, was one of the authors.
“I can’t explain that,” Wilson told the court. Dauid Sibtain, Wilson’s barrister, has previously said that the Ghost websites are a “distraction” and that the “critical issue in this case” is whether MacInnes “did in fact make a complaint to Ms. Wilson.”
At the heart of the case is an incident in September 2023, when Ghost shared a bath with MacInnes in a Sydney apartment after they had been swimming on Bondi Beach. Wilson claims that MacInnes told her that the events made the young actress uncomfortable, and MacInnes then changed her story when Ghost offered her career development opportunities.
Wilson said: “This is such a fun, girl-power movie, and the worst thing that could have fallen into my lap at that point is a sexual harassment complaint from a lead actress against a producer.”
At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Chrysanthou complained that Wilson was being “unresponsive” in her evidence. Sibtain contested that his client was attempting to give full and honest answers.
The Deb dispute is playing out across different fronts in Los Angeles and Australia, overshadowing the feel-good movie about outback teens attending a debutante ball. The film was finally released in Australia earlier this month, but it does not yet have a distributor in the U.S.
The case continues. Justice Elizabeth Raper is overseeing the trial.