{"id":657268,"date":"2026-05-08T07:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657268\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T07:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:49:12","slug":"closing-statements-heard-in-charlotte-macinness-defamation-case-against-rebel-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657268\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing statements heard in Charlotte MacInnes’s defamation case against Rebel Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lawyer representing an actor in a defamation suit against Rebel Wilson has told a court the Hollywood star is a “fantastical liar” who “cannot be believed” on anything she says.<\/p>\n

On Friday, closing statements were heard in the case brought by Charlotte MacInnes over events during the making of Ms Wilson’s directorial debut, The Deb.<\/p>\n

The plaintiff argued Ms Wilson defamed her through claims she walked back on an allegation of sexual harassment for career opportunities.<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes was staying at an apartment with film producer Amanda Ghost in September 2023, when the latter broke out in hives after a swim at Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

The pair ended up sharing a hot bath \u2014 in swimmers \u2014 in what Ms MacInnes described as a “bizarre” series of events.<\/p>\n

However, her lawyer Sue Chrystanthou SC told the Federal Court “nothing untoward” happened that day.<\/p>\n

“We have uncontested version of the key facts: Nothing sexual happened, there’s a medical incident [and] no-one felt uncomfortable,” she said.\"Rebel<\/p>\n

Rebel Wilson has repeatedly said her evidence has been truthful. (AAP: Dan Himbrechts)<\/p>\n

Ms Chrysanthou said her client had been accused of withdrawing the allegation at the centre of the case “for her own commercial benefit”.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson’s account of the Bondi incident was shared to millions of her social media followers, saying what took place was “unacceptable” and Ms MacInnes “changed her story because she’s been paid off” for a music deal and role in a theatre production of The Great Gatsby.<\/p>\n

“The impression one gets when one sees the Instagram story \u2026 starting off with my client with a big red ring around her head is, ‘Poor Rebel, now she’s being backstabbed by this girl who was sexually harassed by this dodgy producer’,” Ms Chrysanthou said.<\/p>\n

However, Ms Chrysanthou said her client never “had that conversation with Ms Wilson” to formally report what happened.<\/p>\n

“Why would this young woman tell Rebel Wilson, a person she had no relationship with except seeing her [on set] \u2026 and not her mother, her boyfriend and her other friends? It just defies logic.”<\/p>\n

\"Ms<\/p>\n

Charlotte MacInnes argues Ms Wilson defamed her through claims she walked back on an allegation of sexual harassment for career opportunities. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

Ms Chrystanthou argued in the years since the Hollywood star had changed her narrative about Ms MacInnes from “victim” to “sex slave” to “a lying, self-motivated money grubber”.<\/p>\n

“So Ms Wilson’s position on whether my client is telling the truth or lying is changing.”<\/p>\n

Wilson accused of a ‘revision of history’<\/p>\n

Friday’s hearing raised issue with Ms Wilson’s evidence throughout the trial, which Ms Chrysanthou argued discredited her version of events.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson has repeatedly said her evidence was truthful.<\/p>\n

\"Sue<\/p>\n

Sue Chrysanthou SC pictured outside court on Friday. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

She told the court Ms Wilson “concealed key evidence”, and what they did have access to showed the actor “made up” allegations of the film’s release date being blocked, as well as contract and budget woes on set.<\/p>\n

“She cannot be believed on any word she says,” Ms Chrysanthou said.<\/p>\n

“[Ms Wilson] is a fantastical liar who has made up terrible, terrible allegations about other people”.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson’s lawyers in the Federal Court on Friday denied the Hollywood star made up the claims.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, The Deb, has faced legal challenges. (Supplied: John Platt)<\/p>\n

Ms Chrysanthou also detailed the impact of an interview Ms Wilson did with 60 Minutes about the legal case last November.<\/p>\n

She told the court after it aired, Ms Wilson “realised” she did not raise the incident “with the appropriate person”.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson was accused of “concocting” conversations with producers and agents that “didn’t happen” on how to “take action against Ms Ghost”.<\/p>\n

“What we have is a complete revision of history by Ms Wilson, and the reason for that is \u2026 she never received such a complaint,” Ms Chrysanthou said.<\/p>\n

“In fact, what happened is that at no point did Ms Wilson take any step as a responsible director to do anything proper about what she claims she was told.”<\/p>\n

\"Ms<\/p>\n

Film producer Amanda Ghost, flew from the UK to Sydney to give evidence in the defamation trial between Ms Wilson and Ms MacInnes.\u00a0 (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

Ms Chrystanthou said media attention and Ms Wilson’s “publicity campaign” had led Ms MacInnes to be “attacked and abused” online, and had a personal and professional effect on her.<\/p>\n

“Since Gatsby, she’s had no acting work \u2026 it actually beggars belief as suggested that my client is living her dreams,” she said.<\/p>\n

“My client has been unable to eat, unable to sleep, has been distressed, fears what she reads next, fears what Rebel Wilson will do next.”<\/p>\n

‘Stratospheric’ career jump motive to change story<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson’s lawyer, Dauid Sibtain SC, also gave his closing statements on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Dauid<\/p>\n

Dauid Sibtain SC says it is “preposterous” to say Ms Wilson lied about Ms MacInnes making the complaint. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

In his defence of Ms Wilson, Mr Sibtain said it would be “preposterous” that the Pitch Perfect star would lie about Ms MacInnes making the complaint.<\/p>\n

He told Justice Elizabeth Raper it would have been “catastrophic” to the chemistry of her own directorial debut and “makes absolutely no sense”.<\/p>\n

“No good reason has been advanced,” Mr Sibtain said.<\/p>\n

“It is entirely against Ms Wilson’s interest to try and drive a wedge between Ms Ghost and Mc MacInnes.”<\/p>\n

In arguing Ms MacInnes was rewarded for watering down her claim about the bathtub incident, Mr Sibtain described her jump from amateur stage actor to international recording artist as “stratospheric”.<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms MacInnes was awarded a publishing deal and a recording contract with Warner Music after “fudging” the details of her complaint.<\/p>\n

“What is the reason she changed her story? Well plainly because she has received these benefits,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That must have been a motivation in her mind for the change.<\/p>\n

“It is remarkable to see someone \u2026 fresh out of having performed a small part in a stage show launching straight into international travel between London, Cannes, Italy and Los Angeles, it’s quite remarkable.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lawyer representing an actor in a defamation suit against Rebel Wilson has told a court the Hollywood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[9716,300084,64,63,447,300083,72653,134,70,2733,158394,32567,317826,63594,670,109053,317825],"class_list":["post-657268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-actor","tag-amanda-ghost","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-charlotte-macinnes","tag-defamation-trial","tag-entertainment","tag-federal-court","tag-nsw","tag-producer","tag-rebel-wilson","tag-rebel-wilson-court-update","tag-sue-chrysanthou","tag-sydney","tag-the-deb","tag-why-is-rebel-wilson-being-sued-for-defamation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657268","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=657268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}