Rebel Wilson faces another day of questioning in the Federal Court in Sydney as he battles a defamation case brought against him by one of his primetime stars.
Wilson, 46, is at the center of lawsuits, including a US lawsuit, brought against him by his international co-producers DebAustralian musical film released earlier this month.
He is also being sued for defamation in the Federal Court by the film’s lead actress, Charlotte MacInnes, 27, over a series of comments on Instagram.
Wilson began giving evidence in the nine-day defamation trial on Tuesday and returned to the witness box on Wednesday for further questioning by MacInnes’ lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou, SC.
MacInnes alleges that Wilson defamed her by implying that she was a “sellout” and a liar who denied her complaints to Wilson about one of the film’s producers, Amanda Ghost, in order to get more work.
MacInnes told the court last week that he “never complained” to Wilson and “didn’t take anything back”.
Wilson claims MacInnes “changed his story” and seeks to prove this is true on a civil level, on the balance of probabilities.
Chrysanthou told Wilson on Tuesday that he “bullied and harassed” MacInnes “in public and in private”.
“That’s complete nonsense,” Wilson said.
Wilson also denied abusing Ghost and screenwriter Hannah Reilly, who wrote the stage production of Deb and developing film scripts.
The court heard Wilson and Reilly had a row after Wilson sought credit for the film’s writing.
The Writers Guild of Australia’ favored Reilly in 2024 in mandatory arbitration, and he received sole credit for writing the screenplay. Wilson received extra writing credit.
Wilson made the comments amid the lawsuit in Instagram stories between September 2024 and July last year.
He suggested MacInnes make a “complaint to me as a director” that Ghost “asked her to take a bath and shower with him and it made her feel bad”, but the young actress later “changed her story” to further her career. MacInnes denies the allegations.
Not a single woman was named in the Instagram story, but it had some identifying information.
There is no dispute that MacInnes and Ghost shared a shower on September 5, 2023, wearing their swimsuits.
MacInnes and Ghost say it was in response to a medical episode where Ghost came into contact with cold water after swimming at Bondi Beach. At the time, the two were living in Bondi’s rented house – along with Ghost’s assistant, who was head of music at Ghost’s production company – during rehearsals for Deb.
Wilson claims MacInnes confided in him the next day that the incident made him uncomfortable, a claim MacInnes denies.
What is not disputed is that Wilson called MacInnes on September 7, 2023, to check in, before texting Ghost: “Charlotte says well. She just meant ‘it was a weird situation’ not that she felt bad x.”
But Wilson raised the incident again a few weeks later. Chrysanthou claims he did it as a “handover” amid a commercial dispute with the film’s producers, a claim Wilson denies.
The case is ongoing.
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