Sydney court has cleared Rebel Wilson of defamation claims brought by Australian actress Charlotte MacInnes, a co-star in Wilson’s 2024 film The Deb, in a dispute that grew out of social media posts and a wider battle surrounding the production.
MacInnes sued Wilson over Instagram posts the Pitch Perfect star published in 2024 and 2025, alleging they defamed her by saying she had withdrawn a sexual harassment complaint against a film producer in order to advance her career. MacInnes has denied Wilson’s claim.
Court dismisses the case
On Wednesday, the BBC reports that Australian federal court jude Elizabeth Raper dismissed the case against Wilson, ruling that the claim that MacInnes had changed her account of the incident was not defamatory. The judge also found that MacInnes had failed to show the posts had caused, or were likely to cause, serious harm. MacInnes was ordered to pay Wilson’s legal costs.
Justice Raper pointed to an unusual episode that became part of the dispute. The defamation stemmed from a September 2023 incident in which MacInnes, the lead actress in The Deb, went swimming at Bondi Beach with Amanda Ghost, a British entertainment executive, former president of Epic Records and one of the film’s producers. According to the BBC, Ghost had an allergic reaction, and both women later returned to the producer’s apartment, where they ended up in the bath together wearing swimsuits.
“To say that the circumstance surrounding how they came to be in the bath are unusual would be an understatement,” Justice Raper told the court.
A broader fight over The Deb
The Sydney case is only one part of a wider legal conflict tied to The Deb, the Australian musical film comedy that Wilson produced, directed and appeared in a supporting role in. In July 2024, Wilson publicly described tensions behind the scenes, accusing the film’s producers Gregor Cameron, Vince Holden and Ghost of blocking the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as making claims of embezzlement of $900,000 from The Deb’s budget and alleging Ghost behaved inappropriately toward MacInnes.
In response, Cameron, Holden and Ghost filed a defamation lawsuit against Wilson. In January, a Los Angeles judge tossed most of Wilson‘s lawsuit against The Deb producers, calling many of the allegations “conclusory without specific facts” and “abusive.”
