“F**king nuts.” “Bully.” “Very difficult to be around.”
This is how Australian actor Rebel Wilson has been described during the first week of her blockbuster defamation trial brought by Charlotte MacInnes, the star of the A-lister’s directorial debut, The Deb.
The film has only recently made it to cinemas as Ms Wilson battles two sets of Australian legal proceedings as well as a third in the US over allegations she slashed the reputation of Ms MacInnes and tried to block the release of her own film.
The rising star is suing Ms Wilson over a series of social media posts she alleges paints her as a “liar” and a “whore”, and which she alleges implies that she walked back a sexual harassment complaint against one of the film’s producers, Amanda Ghost.
Ms Wilson claims the younger actor told her she felt uncomfortable following a bath she shared with Ms Ghost in the producer’s Bondi penthouse in September 2023 after Ms Ghost allegedly suffered a medical episode during a sunset swim at Bondi Beach.
The Hollywood star has alleged Ms MacInnes later withdrew the complaint to score a lucrative record deal and a role in another of Ms Ghost’s productions, taking to Instagram to air the claims in a series of posts described by Ms MacInnes’ barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, as “slagging off” the young actor.
“This is how this bully, apparently this saviour of women … responds,” Ms Chrysanthou said of one of the posts as Ms Wilson sat in court.
Ms MacInnes denies ever making a complaint and told the court she “never” said the bath made her feel uncomfortable.
Her co-star, Ms Wilson, travelled from the US to be in the Federal Court in Sydney for the first day of the star-studded trial on Monday.
The Hollywood actor was all smiles as she thanked those who had gone to see The Deb before she entered the building.
Inside, she was at times spotted chuckling and scoffing as details of the case were laid out on Monday, but was absent from the room during the remainder of the week.
Ms Wilson was on Tuesday described as “f**king nuts” in text messages read in court from the crisis PR firm she is accused of hiring and ordering to create “take down” websites about Ms Ghost, with one of the sites posting unfounded allegations that the producer was the “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell”.
The trial was told how Ms MacInnes, who had once “looked up” to Ms Wilson, felt her dreams of success were coming true as she was whisked around on a billionaire’s superyacht and private jet after being cast in the film.
But her dreams were soon traded for “nightmares”in the wake of the Bridesmaids star’s social media posts, with Ms MacInnes writing of how she cried “every day for weeks” at one stage in her affidavits released by the court on Friday.
“I was also angry that Rebel claims to be someone who stands up for women and young Australian talent but then was so maliciously and unfairly persisting with a narrative that painted me as a liar, prostitute, sell out, and whore,” Ms MacInnes wrote in her affidavits.
“I felt as though she was ripping me apart and showing it off to the world.”
The rising star also claims Ms Wilson hacked into her Snapchat account and sent a nude photograph of her to her entire contact list, including her family and strangers, Ms MacInnes alleges in her affidavit released by the Federal Court on Friday.
Her boyfriend, Carlo Boumouglbay, claimed the young woman feared for her safety and felt Ms Wilson was “monitoring her at all times”.
“Rebel’s posts were really getting to her and breaking her down,” Mr Boumouglbay wrote in his affidavits tendered to the court.
Ms MacInnes’ voice broke as she told the trial her co-star was “very difficult to be around” following the alleged bath complaint.
She denied a photo of her beaming alongside Ms Wilson and Australian acting royal Cate Blanchett backstage at the 2024 AACTA Awards was proof she was “having a good time”, telling the court she had “learned how to assimilate to these situations”.
“You were being an actress?” Ms Wilson’s lawyer, Dauid Sibtain asked.
“While Rebel was there, yes,” she answered.
Ms Blanchett wasn’t the only big name dropped during week one of the massive trial, with the court told Ms MacInnes’ publicist and manager Shoshanna Stone also looks after pop icons Britney Spears and Shakira.
Ms Stone, who signed Ms MacInnes upon the recommendation of Ms Ghost, told the court the young star penned a six-figure record deal with Atlantic Records about a year after Ms Wilson’s posts
Ms MacInnes accepted during cross-examination that the producer played an “instrumental” role in helping bolster her career, but said she had also worked “extremely hard”.
The Deb star was “very distressed” when the Ms Ghost began to distance herself from her after the alleged complaint, and was to an extent concerned how the bath incident would affect her career.
Ms MacInnes also felt Ms Wilson was “spinning some type of story” after she was asked to leave Ms Ghost’s Bondi apartment, where she had been staying along with another member of the film’s team, “because she felt uncomfortable” with the producer, Mr Boumouglbay claimed in his affidavit.
Ms Ghost’s relationship with Ms MacInnes was probed extensively over the week, with the producer admitting she was so angry with the young woman that she “couldn’t even look at her” on one occasion, but that she later came to believe the young star’s version of events.
Ms MacInnes told Ms Wilson everything was “all good” and there were “zero issues at all” after the Pitch Perfect star called her to seek clarification over the alleged complaint in the days following the bath, text messages shown to the court revealed.
“Charlotte says all good. She just meant ‘it was a bizarre situation’ not that she personally felt uncomfortable x,” Ms Wilson wrote in a text to Ms Ghost.
“Oh thank f**k for that!!” the producer replied.
Ms Wilson will have her chance to share her side of the story when she takes the stand next week.