Brisbane, Australia —
Hollywood star Rebel Wilson has successfully defended allegations that she defamed the young actress who starred in her directorial debut.
An Australian judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by “Deb” actress Charlotte McInnes, who accused the “Pitch Perfect” star of spreading lies about her to millions of Instagram followers.
McInnes said the messages made her “the subject of abuse, hate and ridicule online” and affected her career prospects. Judge Elizabeth Raper dissented.
In her posts, Wilson suggested that McInnes withdrew her sexual harassment complaint against the film’s producers in order to pursue her career as an actress and singer. McInnes denied ever making a complaint.
The claim and counterclaim are among serious allegations, including smear campaigns and embezzlement, that have emerged in multiple court cases currently swirling around the production of the Australian musical comedy.
Set in an outback Australian town, Deb tells the story of two very different cousins - one from the city and one from the country – who come together before a debutante ball. It was supposed to be a moving story of triumph, but its creation spawned a saga of its own.
Wilson told 60 Minutes Australia last year that the legal storm surrounding the making of her first feature film was “like my worst nightmare” and the issues had “flown out of sight”.
In an Instagram post after Wednesday’s ruling, Wilson thanked the judge and the Australian court system for the “significant victory” and said she looked forward to moving on.
One of the key allegations relates to an incident in September 2023 when McInnes and producer Amanda Gost were taking a bath in a Sydney penthouse rented by the production company.
In her ruling, Judge Raper said: “To say that the circumstances in which they found themselves in the bath were unusual would be an understatement.”
McInnes and Ghost said they were both wearing swimsuits and got into the bath to warm up after Ghost had a physical reaction to swimming in the cold sea at the city’s Bondi Beach.
Ghost said in her statement to the court that she was shaking uncontrollably and developing welts that she hoped would go away after warming up.
She said McInnes was also cold and the bathtub was large enough for both women. Supporting Ghost’s version of events, McInnes said in her evidence: “At no point was there anything sexual.”
However, Wilson claimed that McInnes told her that Ghost asked her to take a bath and shower with her, and that the experience made her “not feel comfortable.”
Wilson said she believed McInnes reported sexual harassment on set and that as a director she had a responsibility to take action.
Judge Raper found that only one of the claims was “fictional” – that McInnes had changed her story about being uncomfortable – and it was not defamatory. The case was dropped and McInnes was ordered to pay court costs.
The penthouse bathhouse claims are just some of the allegations made in court documents about the film, described in one review as a “fun, frothy, irreverent musical.”
According to court documents, Wilson’s relationship with producers began to deteriorate before filming began in 2023 and deteriorated during post-production.
The explosive allegations were also made in a letter sent in June 2024 by Wilson’s lawyer Brian Friedman to Ghost and the film’s other producers, Ghost’s husband Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden.
In her evidence, Ghost said the letter contained “a number of seriously defamatory and false allegations of depraved sexual advances towards Charlotte by myself and Gregor while they were in a flat in Bondi Beach”.
“I was appalled by the letter and the false accusations Rebel made,” Ghost said. Ghost and her co-producers filed their own libel case against Wilson.
Ghost claims Wilson played a role in creating defamatory websites that called her “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell”, a reference to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s former partner who is now jailed for her role in bringing young girls to his home. Wilson denies having anything to do with it.
In social media posts, Wilson claimed that producers initially refused to allow the film to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as a way to get back at her for calling attention to their bad behavior. Phantom said she did not seek to prevent the film from being screened at TIFF.
Deb will premiere at TIFF in 2024. It was released in Australian cinemas earlier this year and is scheduled for release in the US this August.
This is not the first time Wilson has been at the center of a high-profile libel case.
In 2017, the actress won a libel suit she brought against publisher Bauer Media, who she said had called her a “serial liar” in a series of articles in Australian lifestyle magazines.
The articles suggested that Wilson lied about her name, age and upbringing as she chased fame in Hollywood.
Judge John Dixon said Bauer Media had failed to prove that the allegations made about Wilson were substantially true or trivial.
She was awarded Australia’s highest libel payout at the time, A$4.5 million ($3.6 million), but it was later reduced to around $450,000 after an appeal court found the articles had not seriously damaged her career.