NATHANAEL COOPER: Rebel Wilson allegedly involved in Amanda Ghost smear website in new evidence lodged in US
The boss of a PR agency retained to manage the crisis communications around Rebel Wilson’s legal battles appears to have contradicted the actress’ claim she never knew about smear websites targeting a producer.
The boss of a PR agency retained to manage the crisis communications around Rebel Wilson’s legal battles has sworn the actress personally sent her a document that became the basis of smear websites targeting the producer of her film The Deb, months after Wilson told an Australian court she knew nothing about it.
At the centre of various messy legal battles Wilson is facing, in Australia and the US, are the websites amandaghost.com and amandaghostsucks.com, which an Australian court heard describe one of the film’s producers, Amanda Ghost, as the Indian Ghislaine Maxwell who “trades pleasure for protection”.
Melissa Nathan, founder of Hollywood PR firm The Agency Group (TAG), made the claim in a declaration filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on September 23.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The sworn evidence appears to be at odds with testimony Wilson gave in the Federal Court in Sydney in April when she was sued for defamation by the star of The Deb, Western Australian actress Charlotte MacInnes, over a series of Instagram posts which MacInnes’ lawyers said painted her as a liar and a woman for sale. MacInnes lost that action but has launched an appeal.
In giving evidence in the Federal Court, Wilson denied authoring or ordering websites. She was shown metadata obtained from a document which formed the basis of the websites that showed it had been created by, and last authored by Camp Sugar - the company she owns with her mother. She denied knowing about the document and suggested anyone could have created it using the name of her production company, Camp Sugar.
But, in her declaration, Ms Nathan said Wilson herself sent her a document titled “Amanda Ghost Website.doc”, and that neither she nor anyone at TAG modified the document before it was passed on.
Ms Nathan also said it was her understanding Wilson “wanted a website published with information about Ms. Ghost”.
In April, Wilson also told the Federal Court her US lawyer, Bryan Freedman, hired TAG and repeatedly insisted the crisis communications firm had not been commissioned to work for her.
Ms Nathan’s declaration says TAG was “retained by Rebel Wilson” in July 2024 and explicitly describes Wilson as the company’s client.
Ms Nathan and TAG deny creating or publishing the websites and say they believed information supplied by Wilson was truthful.
The declaration was filed in support of Ms Nathan and TAG’s bid for summary judgment in related US litigation and its claims have not yet been tested or accepted by the court.
During her Sydney evidence in April, Wilson denied suggestions by MacInnes’ barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC that she was not telling the truth.
“You know you’ve lied about this topic for a year haven’t you?” Ms Chrysanthou asked.
“No,” Wilson responded.
Wilson is being sued in the NSW Supreme Court by AI Films, who produced The Deb, for allegedly undermining and blocking the release of the film.
The websites, which have since been taken down, are also central to that matter which is currently being heard in Sydney.
