{"id":625048,"date":"2026-04-23T05:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625048\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:17:17","slug":"rebel-wilson-mischaracterised-innocent-incident-defamation-trial-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625048\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Wilson mischaracterised ‘innocent incident’, defamation trial told"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young actor suing Rebel Wilson for defamation has given details in court about an incident at Bondi Beach, which she claims the Hollywood star has since mischaracterised.<\/p>\n

The Federal Court is hearing a defamation case brought by Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actor in Ms Wilson’s latest movie The Deb, in which she alleges Ms Wilson claimed she walked back allegations of being sexually harassed by movie producer Amanda Ghost, in exchange for acting jobs.<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes’s statement of claim said Ms Wilson mischaracterised what was an “innocent incident” by claiming in social media posts and on a “take-down website” that Ms Ghost had sexually harassed an actor in her movie.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

The court heard Rebel Wilson called Ms MacInnes to check she was OK. (AAP: Adelaide Lang\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The court heard the incident happened in the movie producer’s bathroom at Bondi on September 5, 2023, after the pair went for an evening swim.<\/p>\n

Ms Ghost had a reaction to the cold water, the court heard, and broke out in welts, requiring her to warm up.<\/p>\n

Actor admits bath incident was ‘weird’<\/p>\n

Under cross-examination by Ms Wilson’s lawyers, Ms MacInnes was asked about her affidavit, which states she ran a shower and a bath, and first got in the bath herself to warm up while Ms Ghost was in the shower.<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes admitted the bath incident was “strange and bizarre”. (ABC News: Abbey Haberecht)<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes told the court she and another movie producer present then suggested Ms Ghost get in the bath as well.<\/p>\n

But defence barrister Dauid Sibtain SC challenged her about the order of events.<\/p>\n

“The reason you got in the bath is because she invited you to get in the bath. That’s true isn’t it?” Mr Sibtain asked.<\/p>\n

“No,” Ms MacInnes replied.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut The Deb has faced legal challenges on its way to Australian cinemas. (Supplied: John Platt)<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms MacInnes, Ms Ghost and Ms Wilson chatted about the incident at work the following day, where Ms Wilson claims Ms MacInnes complained to her that the incident made her feel “uncomfortable”.<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes claims she never said she was uncomfortable, but agreed with Mr Sibtain that she may have described the incident to Ms Wilson as “weird” or “strange and bizarre”.<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms Wilson followed up with a call to her lead actor to check she was OK, and Ms MacInnes claims she told Ms Wilson again that there was no issue.<\/p>\n

MacInnes got ‘incredible opportunities’<\/p>\n

Part of Ms Wilson’s case is that Ms MacInnes walked back her story about the Bondi incident, because of the career opportunities the influential producer could provide her.<\/p>\n

Mr Sibtain told the court Ms MacInnes got several “incredible opportunities” thanks to Ms Ghost, including studio recording sessions in London, encouragement to audition for roles and feedback on an as-yet unsubmitted audition tape for the play Gatsby that Ms Ghost was producing in the US.<\/p>\n

\"Dauid<\/p>\n

Dauid Sibtain SC arriving outside court for the Rebel Wilson v Charlotte MacInnes defamation case. (ABC News: Abbey Haberecht)<\/p>\n

Ms Ghost even sent Ms MacInnes a “confidential” audition tape of another actress, to help prepare, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes was eventually cast as Daisy in the play.<\/p>\n

In May 2023, Ms MacInnes and other actors from The Deb were flown from London to the Cannes Film Festival on Warner Music Group boss Selim Bouab’s private jet, Mr Sibtain told the court.<\/p>\n

Ms Ghost was among a small group who then took Ms MacInnes to Mr Bouab’s superyacht at the end of the night, where she was asked to play piano and sing some original songs and covers.<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes agreed it was an “incredible opportunity”.<\/p>\n

“At this time did you pause to think your dreams were coming true?” Mr Sibtain asked.<\/p>\n

“Yes,” Ms MacInnes replied.<\/p>\n

“Did you reflect that it had all started with Amanda Ghost and the faith that she had shown in you?” Mr Sibtain asked.<\/p>\n

“To a degree, yes,” Ms MacInnes told the court.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson is expected to give evidence on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young actor suing Rebel Wilson for defamation has given details in court about an incident at Bondi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,300083,300086,76741,134,70,4397,32567,300085,302773,302774,302772],"class_list":["post-625048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charlotte-macinnes","tag-dauid-sibtain-sc","tag-defamation-case","tag-entertainment","tag-federal-court","tag-federal-court-of-australia","tag-rebel-wilson","tag-sue-chrysanthou-sc","tag-the-deb-controversy","tag-the-deb-legal-case","tag-the-deb-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}