Rebel Wilson Slammed by Producers of Her Directorial Debut in Updated Defamation Suit
Rebel Wilson and the producers of her directorial debut are feuding.
Three producers behind the musical The Deb filed an amended complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday (July 29), claiming Rebel defamed them when she accused them of “inappropriate behavior towards the lead actress of the film [and] embezzling funds from the film’s budget,” via Variety.
In a video previously posted on Instagram, she named the film’s producers Amanda Ghost and Gregor Cameron as well executive producer Vince Holden, which is still live.
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The amended complaint claims the star was absent from the set for months at a time, made multiple unauthorized and improper disclosures about the film, and as far as her accusations, “simply made them up with actual malice” because she was angry over final credits.
“Because Rebel shirked her professional obligations to the Plaintiffs, the Film, and everyone dedicated to its success, she started flailing and inventing problems to obfuscate her own failures,” the complaint states.
The feud comes from a dispute over writing and music credits on the film. Rebel wanted a full screenplay credit, but was only given an “additional writing by” credit by the Australian Writers Guild. Hannah Reilly was given sole screenplay credit.
In their initial complaint, the producers said Rebel was unhappy with the guild’s decision.
The amended complaint claims that Rebel “has a history of fabricating false and malicious lies to hide her own lack of professionalism and advance her own self-interest,” adding: “This lawsuit is about holding Rebel accountable for her attempts to bully Plaintiffs into conceding to her unreasonable demands by spreading vicious lies without regard for the irreparable damage her reckless words would cause on the hard-earned personal and professional reputations of Plaintiffs.”
The defamation suit also addresses her allegation that Sacha Baron Cohen sexually harassed her on the set of The Brothers Grimsby.
“In her autobiography, Rebel included false allegations about well-known actor Sacha Baron Cohen’s alleged inappropriate behavior,” the amended complaint states.
In her memoir, she accused the Borat star of pressuring her to perform nude, and said that he once pulled his pants down on set and said, ‘Okay, now I want you to stick your finger up my a–,’ which he called “demonstrably false.”
“Due to these false allegations, portions of her autobiography were redacted when published in the United Kingdom and Australia. Nevertheless, Rebel successfully used the furor around such allegations to promote the sale of her book. As with this situation, Rebel hypocritically played the victim in order to elicit public sympathy in the hope that it would advance her professional self-interest,” the updated suit reads.
The updated suit claims she fought for credit with the writers of the music for The Deb and “demanded that Plaintiffs provide her a record label with an external music group (a demand which was well outside of Plaintiffs’ power to provide),” via Variety.
The producers claim that she retaliated by posting accusations in a public forum.
“When Rebel did not get her way in this these disputes, she revived a fictitious story about Ms. Ghost sexually harassing a lead actor in The Deb that has absolutely no basis in reality, as the actor that is the subject of this defamatory tale has repeatedly confirmed. In addition, Rebel claimed, without any basis, that Ms. Ghost and Mr. Cameron were embezzling from the film’s budget. These statements are false, and Rebel knew they were false at the time she made them. Rebel knew that the actress at issue had repeatedly and unequivocally denied any form of wrongful conduct by Plaintiffs, but Rebel doubled down on her false story to promote her own selfish interests in her disputes with Plaintiffs, without regard for the Plaintiffs or the young, upcoming lead actress who she dragged into the center of her malicious scheme.”
“Rebel knew when she made the statements … that they were false, and/or acted with reckless disregard of the truth, including because she was informed by the lead actress that Ms. Ghost did not do anything inappropriate or wrongful, and because she was kept fully appraised of the film’s budget,” the suit also states. “At the time the statements were made, Rebel had no plausible basis and no evidence to support her claims.”
In her post, Rebel claimed that the three producers are “stopping it from premiering” at TIFF. But sources say the film is still expected to debut at the festival.
Find out what Rebel Wilson said in response to the initial defamation suit.