Australian actor and filmmaker Rebel Wilson has been cleared in a defamation case brought by the lead actress in her directorial debut, The Deb.
A Sydney court ruled on Wednesday that Wilson’s Instagram posts about Charlotte MacInnes were not defamatory.
The dispute centred on an incident in September 2023 when MacInnes and one of the film’s producers went swimming at Sydney’s Bondi Beach and subsequently bathed together.
Wilson later posted on Instagram that MacInnes had complained to her about feeling uncomfortable during the incident but had subsequently changed her account.
Judge Elizabeth Raper found that the posts were not defamatory and said MacInnes had failed to demonstrate that their publication caused serious harm to her reputation.
MacInnes and her legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ruling is the latest development in a series of legal disputes surrounding The Deb, a musical comedy which marked Wilson’s feature directorial debut.
The film had its world premiere as the closing-night selection at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, but its wider release was delayed amid separate legal proceedings involving Wilson and the film’s producers.
Source: Reuters