{"id":815321,"date":"2026-07-21T23:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T23:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815321\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T23:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T23:09:12","slug":"rebel-wilson-awaits-ruling-in-defamation-battle-with-fellow-actor-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815321\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Wilson awaits ruling in defamation battle with fellow actor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood star Rebel Wilson will learn today whether she defamed the lead actor on her “fun girl-power” film, in a judgment to be handed down in the Federal Court.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson gave evidence during hearings in Sydney in May, after Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actor in her directorial debut movie The Deb, launched defamation proceedings against her.<\/p>\n

The high-profile court case garnered international attention, with barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, who represented Ms MacInnes, accusing the Pitch Perfect actor of lying while giving evidence.<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte<\/p>\n

Actor Charlotte MacInnes is behind the defamation action against Ms Wilson. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

After two weeks of hearings, which included evidence about disparaging social media posts, the alleged involvement of a Russian oligarch and claims of embezzled movie funds, Justice Elizabeth Raper will hand down her decision this afternoon.<\/p>\n

The case is one of several court battles Ms Wilson is dealing with in relation to The Deb, with producers on the film currently pursuing her in a UK court, a US court and the NSW Supreme Court for allegedly blocking the release of the movie.<\/p>\n

The Deb was released in Australia in April after being delayed several months, and a US release date for the film is locked in for August.<\/p>\n

The claims against Rebel Wilson<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes, 27, is suing Ms Wilson for defamation, claiming she damaged her reputation through a series of social media posts that suggested the young actor walked back an account of sexual harassment at work to score more acting jobs.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson shared several disparaging posts to her personal accounts and The Deb’s social media accounts from July 2024, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The court also heard about a website created by Ms Wilson’s US-based PR firm that alleged Ms MacInnes was assaulted by one of the movie’s producers, Amanda Ghost.<\/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 website was written as if it were an anonymous whistleblower site, but it was in fact written by the firm, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson denied she asked for the site to be created.<\/p>\n

Ms Chrysanthou accused Ms Wilson of then lying about her involvement with the website in a 60 Minutes interview about the saga.<\/p>\n

The Bondi Beach bath incident<\/p>\n

The allegation of sexual harassment centres around an incident at Ms Ghost’s Bondi Beach apartment.<\/p>\n

Ms Ghost, 51, told the court she had a severe skin reaction to the cold water after an ocean swim and got into a bath to warm up.<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes said she ended up in the bath with Ms Ghost, both women with their swimmers on, to get warm.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson claimed Ms MacInnes complained to her at work the next day that the incident made her feel uncomfortable, but Ms MacInnes maintains she never made a complaint.<\/p>\n

“This is such a fun girl-power movie, the worst thing that could have fallen into my lap \u2026 was a sexual harassment complaint against a producer,” Ms Wilson said during the trial.<\/p>\n

\"Ms<\/p>\n

Film producer Amanda Ghost outside court. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

The allegation Ms MacInnes walked back the complaint so she could continue to win acting jobs from Ms Ghost, is denied by Ms MacInnes.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson claimed in court Ms MacInnes’s success in the music industry was a result of her close relationship with Ms Ghost.<\/p>\n

The court heard Ms MacInnes was given multiple studio recording sessions in London and secured a recording contract with Warner Music, whose billionaire owner, Sir Len Blavatnik, also funded Ms Ghost’s production company.<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson denies defaming Ms MacInnes and argues the imputations conveyed by the posts are substantially true.<\/p>\n

Ms MacInnes is seeking general and aggravated damages, as well as damages for breach of confidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollywood star Rebel Wilson will learn today whether she defamed the lead actor on her “fun girl-power” film,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[300084,64,63,447,300083,1108,18231,134,2733,32567,307585,390646,109053,1109],"class_list":["post-815321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-amanda-ghost","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-charlotte-macinnes","tag-court","tag-defamation","tag-entertainment","tag-nsw","tag-rebel-wilson","tag-rebel-wilson-defamation-case","tag-rebel-wilson-verdict","tag-the-deb","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815321","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=815321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}