Rebel Wilson has been accused of fabricating a claim that the young star of her film The Deb, Charlotte MacInnes, complained about being sexually harassed by one of the producers when they shared a bath at a Bondi apartment.
On the opening day of MacInnes’ defamation case against Wilson in the Federal Court, her barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, said the allegation against Amanda Ghost was made only as leverage in a later dispute about the film’s budget.
MacInnes shared a bath after Ghost had had a medical episode after a swim in September 2023 and both were wearing swimmers at the time, Chrysanthou said.
The sexual harassment allegation was raised weeks later when Wilson, who directed and acted in The Deb, was in a dispute with the producers about an item in the budget, according to MacInnes.
Wilson’s barrister, Dauid Sibtain SC, said in response that Justice Elizabeth Raper did not need to make a finding about whether it was appropriate or inappropriate for a producer to share a bath with a young actress.
The central issue was whether MacInnes reported to Wilson that she was made to feel uncomfortable by Ghost and whether she later changed her story. “Our case is that … she changed her story,” he said.
Earlier, Wilson spoke about her affection for The Deb as she entered the court.
“I love the movie,” she said. “The Deb is so cute and amazing. Thank you to everyone who’s going to the cinemas.”
MacInnes is suing Wilson for defamation over a series of four posts on Instagram between September 2024 and May last year.
MacInnes claims the Instagram posts convey a series of false and defamatory meanings, including that she “falsely changed her story that a producer of the film The Deb had sexually harassed her during the making of the film … in return for being employed by the producer in the lead role of the production called GATSBY and given a record label”.
She says Wilson defamed her by accusing her of lying “by denying that she had made a complaint to Wilson about sexual harassment made to her by a producer of the film The Deb”.
In her statement of claim filed in court, lawyers for MacInnes say the actor “did not make ‘a complaint’ to Wilson about the producer’s conduct toward her as alleged in the publications by Wilson”.
They say that on September 5, 2023, Amanda Ghost, “one of the producers of The Deb, experienced a medical episode after entering cold water at Bondi Beach” and “MacInnes helped Ghost back to her apartment where they and others were staying and helped stabilise her condition by running a hot shower and bath for her”.
“Both women remained in their bathing suits. A third person, Pia Ashcroft, a senior member of the production team staying in the apartment, was also present.”
While MacInnes denies making a complaint about Ghost to Wilson during production of The Deb, MacInnes’ lawyers also argue that “any such complaint” would have been “private and confidential … especially if the complaint involved allegations of sexual harassment or that MacInnes had been made to feel uncomfortable by a producer”.
Information of that kind “should not have been disclosed by Wilson to anyone other than
MacInnes’ employer without MacInnes’ permission, and certainly should not have
been disclosed by Wilson to Ghost as the subject of the complaint”, MacInnes’ lawyers say.
If the court finds Wilson has established that MacInnes made a complaint to her about Ghost, it will also need to consider if it was a breach of confidence for Wilson to disclose that information and if she should pay compensation to MacInnes.
Wilson denies any breach of confidence and says that at the time of her posts “the information was not confidential”.
The statement of claim also alleges that in August 2024 “Wilson requested her publicist, Melissa Nathan of US PR firm, The Agency Group PR LLC, to register and publish on the internet a series of malicious websites about Ghost”. Wilson denies this allegation.
In a defence filed in court, Wilson denies that the allegedly defamatory meanings were conveyed by the posts. In the event the court finds the meanings were conveyed, she is seeking to rely chiefly on the defence of truth.
She alleges that in September 2023, MacInnes told her “words to the effect that ‘Amanda [Ghost] asked me to have a bath and a shower with her and it made me feel uncomfortable’.”
Adapted by Hannah Reilly from her 2022 stage musical, The Deb is about a suspended city private school student (MacInnes) who is sent to stay with her cousin (Natalie Abbott) in a drought-stricken town before a debutante ball.
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