{"id":635479,"date":"2026-04-28T04:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635479\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T04:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:16:18","slug":"rebel-wilson-confirms-she-sees-herself-as-a-champion-of-women-during-defamation-trial-and-denies-mistreating-star-rebel-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635479\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Wilson confirms she sees herself as a \u2018champion of women\u2019 during defamation trial and denies mistreating star | Rebel Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood actor Rebel Wilson<\/a> has denied mistreating the star of her directorial debut, describing herself as a champion of women in her defence of a blockbuster defamation suit.<\/p>\n

The Pitch Perfect star is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the Australian lead actor of the musical comedy The Deb.<\/p>\n

MacInnes claims she was defamed by social media posts from Wilson that suggest she is a liar who retracted a sexual harassment complaint to advance her career.<\/p>\n

Wilson claims the young actor confided she felt uncomfortable after sharing a bath in swimwear with The Deb co-producer Amanda Ghost following a medical episode in September 2023.<\/p>\n

MacInnes denies making the complaint and maintains she told the Bridesmaids star the situation was strange but she didn\u2019t feel personally uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Wilson was in the federal court witness box on Tuesday when she was questioned about a public statement portraying herself as a champion of women.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you still say you regard yourself as a champion of women?\u201d MacInnes\u2019s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Wilson replied. \u201cIf you look over my 25-year career, you can see many evidences [sic] of me supporting women.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hollywood star denied mistreating MacInnes, Ghost or co-writer Hannah Reilly while working with them on the film, labelling accusations of private and public bullying as \u201cabsolute nonsense\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wilson claimed in an affidavit that she overheard the producer and young star saying intimate things \u2013 often of a sexual nature \u2013 to each other, which MacInnes has denounced as untrue.<\/p>\n

She also rejected Wilson\u2019s account of seeing Ghost push her to go out for a drink together until the young actor relented.<\/p>\n

Wilson falsely portrayed herself as a whistleblower who spoke up to protect MacInnes when she was actually using the alleged complaint as leverage in a dispute with her co-producers, Chrysanthou said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was angry that Rebel claims to be someone who stands up for women \u2026 but then was so maliciously and unfairly persisting with a narrative that painted me as a liar, prostitute, sell out, and whore,\u201d MacInnes wrote in her affidavit.<\/p>\n

Instead of checking on the alleged victim of inappropriate behaviour, Chrysanthou said Wilson shared posts \u201cslagging off\u201d her client.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how this bully, apparently this saviour of women, the protector of the harassed, responds,\u201d she previously told the court.<\/p>\n

But Wilson raised her concerns with others even though she had doubts about the veracity of the alleged complaint, her lawyer, Dauid Sibtain SC, said.<\/p>\n

The central issue is not whether she was a victim but instead whether she complained to Wilson and then changed her story, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur case is that \u2026 she changed her story,\u201d Sibtain said in his opening address.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe did so to ensure her career as an actress and musician progressed by appeasing Ms Ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sibtain argued MacInnes\u2019 reputation has not suffered any harm to her reputation at all as a result of the social media posts, contrary to her allegations.<\/p>\n

It is likely Wilson will face questioning about MacInnes\u2019 claim that the older actor played a role in a hack on her social media account that led to a nude photo being leaked.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood star is also expected to be grilled on whether she was involved in creating malicious websites attacking Ghost that referenced the alleged complaint.<\/p>\n

Wilson has been accused of directing a crisis PR team to create the websites but denies any involvement.<\/p>\n

Amanda Ghost arrives at the federal court in Sydney on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi\/AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood actor Rebel Wilson has denied mistreating the star of her directorial debut, describing herself as a champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-635479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635479","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=635479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}