Rebel Wilson wins lawsuit against actress Charlotte MacInnes
A Federal Court judge found the 27-year-old changed her story about feeling uncomfortable about taking a bath with a producer of Wilson’s directorial debut, The Deb.
Australian comedic actress Rebel Wilson defeated the young lead of her directorial debut, Charlotte MacInnes, in a defamation lawsuit that put the Pitch Perfect star’s integrity on trial.
In a huge blow for the 27-year-old actress, Federal Court judge Elizabeth Raper said MacInnes had changed her story about feeling uncomfortable during an evening bath with the producer of musical comedy The Deb, British movie executive Amanda Ghost.
The lawsuit focused on an evening swim taken by Ms Ghost and MacInnes in September, 2023, while they were temporarily living together nearby during the filming of The Deb, the first movie directed by Wilson.
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“To say the circumstances of how they ended up in the bath was unusual would be an understatement,” Justice Raper said in her judgement today.
The day after the swim MacInnes complained to Wilson about the joint bath, according to Wilson, who accused Ms Ghost of “completely inappropriate and unacceptable” behaviour in one of four Instagram posts relating to the incident.
No serious harm
In court MacInnes denied complaining to Wilson, who accused MacInnes of changing her story to please Ms Ghost to secure a recording contract and another film role.
Of the 19 defamatory “imputations” or meanings claimed by MacInnes’s lawyers in the Instagram posts, Justice Raper only accepted one: that MacInnes changed her story. But she did not accept Wilson lied.
“Ms Wilson would have established that this imputation is substantially true,” she said in the judgement.
Justice Raper ruled that MacInnes hadn’t suffered serious harm from the Instagram posts or proven that Wilson committed a breach of confidence. She ordered the actress to cover Wilson’s legal costs.
Within minutes of the judgement Wilson posted on Instagram a photograph of herself in a makeup chair wearing a top advertising her next film, Girl Group. The movie’s director and lead actress, Wilson plays a faded popstar forced to try and turn misfit teenagers into a slick girl band.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported me,” she said in the post, which amassed 1800 likes within one hour. “I’m grateful this chapter has reached its conclusion and I’m looking forward to getting back to what I love most, my family and my work. Thank you to the Judge and the Australian legal system who I have the utmost respect for.”
In a separate statement issued through her publicist, Wilson said she was thankful the “process has now reached its conclusion”.
A lawyer for MacInnes did not immediately respond when asked if she is considering an appeal. She has not appeared in any movie since The Deb, according to the IMDb database, although three weeks ago released a debut EP, Highwater, on Spotify and other music sites.
