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In the twin worlds of litigation and showbiz, the cross-examination of actor-director Rebel Wilson by celebrity defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou promised to be the headline act in a clash of the show ponies.
Wilson has cast herself in the drama that enveloped her directorial debut on the musical comedy The Deb as a gutsy underdog defending truth, justice, women and Australian taxpayers.
“Everyone knows I’m a ‘truth teller’ when it comes to vile people in the industry,” she said in one of the social media posts she is being sued over.
Chrysanthou styles herself as a warrior for the wronged, and in this case she is acting for 27-year-old actor Charlotte MacInnes, who claims that Wilson cruelled her fledgling career in the film industry by portraying her as a sellout and a liar.
One social media post under contention in the dispute depicts MacInnes singing aboard billionaire Len Blavatnik’s superyacht in Cannes, where she reportedly performed a cover of Chappell Roan’s hit Pink Pony Club. Its refrain echoed as Wilson smiled through flashing cameras on her way to court.
But if Wilson planned to have fun she had not counted on Chrysanthou whipping out a pony stick from beneath her robes and beating her over the head with it.
Chrysanthou is tetchy, impatient with her opposing counsel Dauid Sibtain, SC, and exasperated with the answers that fell from the witness’s lips.
Wilson is as deadpan in the witness stand as she is in her acting roles. “You’ve made a lot of grand statements about a lot of things,” she observed of Chrysanthou on Tuesday.
The “inciting incident”, as they say in the biz, was an episode at Bondi Beach during pre-production for the film in September 2023, where MacInnes went for a swim with producer Amanda Ghost. Ghost claimed to have suffered a medical episode and they both warmed up in a bath wearing their swimming costumes.
Wilson believes that a shower was also involved. She describes it as the “bath and shower incident”. MacInnes denies the involvement of a shower. Her legal team describes it as “the bath incident”.
The stage was set for a showdown.
Wilson told her social media followers a year later that MacInnes had initially complained about the incident, before walking back any sexual harassment complaint to advance her career. MacInnes contends Ghost never behaved inappropriately and she had never complained.
But subplots abound.
Wilson is facing two other lawsuits with her co-producers on The Deb, including a defamation claim brought by Ghost, and has clashed with a screenwriter over the writing credits. She has claimed that Australian taxpayers were ripped off under the financing arrangements.
Watching the proceedings from the front row was Ghost herself, her head tilted and eyes fixated on Wilson as she delivered her evidence, sometimes exchanging meaningful glances with a group sitting in the back row. Her own claim against Wilson remains on foot.
Towards the end of the second day, Justice Elizabeth Raper interrupted proceedings to chastise one of the observers, who she said was “shaking her head” at points during Wilson’s testimony and would be escorted from the court if the behaviour continued.
“Maybe she doesn’t understand the Australian legal system … but I’m concerned that it’s affecting the integrity of the testimony,” Justice Raper said.
The tangle of legal action is fertile ground to Chrysanthou as she sifts for evidence of untruthfulness, inconsistencies and lies by omission.
“There’s lots of different documents in the lawsuits so there could be inconsistencies,” Wilson agreed, but strenuously denied any lies.
According to the timeline set out by MacInnes, Wilson appeared to accept her assurances in the days after the incident that nothing untoward had occurred and tried to discredit her with Ghost while the pair holidayed on Hamilton Island by labelling her “a troublemaker”.
At that time, Wilson suspected that MacInnes had been leaking information to screenwriter Hannah Reilly to help her claim a greater share of the film’s profits.
The court heard that it was not until a month later that Wilson escalated her concerns about the bath incident, amid a looming dispute with Ghost over their contractual arrangements.
MacInnes claims that when she denied being traumatised by the incident, Wilson questioned her motives, telling her social media followers that she reported the sexual harassment complaint in good faith, only for MacInnes to resile from it. “The fact that this girl has been employed now by this ‘producer’… should be all the proof you need as to why she has now changed her story.”
But Wilson denied on Wednesday using the sexual assault allegation as leverage in her financial dispute with Ghost, and said her concerns about the “bath and shower incident” had never gone away.
“I was confused and just a bit, I can’t describe it, just this unease,” she said. “It was really suss.”
Wilson’s intuition was an enduring theme of her evidence on Wednesday, including her hypothesis that Len Blavatnik, who funded The Deb, was also funding the defamation litigation, which was apparently evidenced by the fact that his plane had landed in Sydney eight days ago.
Chrysanthou: “Are you suggesting that lawyers acting for Ms MacInnes arrived on a private jet in Sydney?”
Wilson: “I’m suggesting that people on the team of a Russian oligarch billionaire arrived in Sydney a week ago.”
Had Wilson used similar reasoning to support the other allegations she had made in her evidence? Chrysanthou posed.
“When I give my evidence, it’s based on my truthful recollection,” Wilson replied. “Sometimes I’m reminded by documents. Sometimes I would say one and one makes two and make a logical decision about things.”
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