Rebel Wilson sued by movie producers over sexual harassment claims
Australian actor Rebel Wilson is facing legal action over claims she made against movie producers of sexual harassment and embezzlement. The three producers refute the claims and are now suing Wilson for defamation.
The producers in question – Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden – worked with Wilson on her directorial debut, The Deb. The musical comedy which stars Wilson alongside Hannah Reilly and Meg Washington charts the tales of two teenage girls attending a debutante ball in a small country town.
The movie is currently in post-production but has already been best by issues after Wilson took to Instagram to level accusations at her producers. In a video, she claimed that she had “found out not minor things, big things” that related to “inappropriate behaviour towards the lead actress of the film” and “embezzling funds from the film’s budget”.
Wilson claimed that the producers purposefully prevented the film for premiering during the lucrative closing spot of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which is now booked up ahead of its September run. However, the details behind her claim on this front remain unclear.
As for the sexual harassment claim, Wilson accused that Ghost of inappropriate behaviour towards the film’s leading star, Hannah Reilly. Wilson explained that Ghost “has a history of doing this kind of thing“. However, as stated in Ghost’s own defamation lodging, Reilly herself has denied that she was the victim of any inappropriate behaviour.
Matters in the case have been complicated further owing to the fact that Reilly, who got her start in the profession thanks to a theatre scholarship launched by Wilson, was originally stated as the writer of The Deb, with Wilson receiving an additional writing credit. However, Wilson has since tried to overturn this and take ownership of the screenplay despite the Australian Writers’ Guild vetoing this decision.
n response to the allegations made by Wilson on social media, a spokesperson for Ghost, Cameron and Holden told Deadline: “RW’s allegations are false, defamatory, and disappointing. Her self-promotional claims are clearly intended to cause reputational harm to the individuals who have supported her directorial debut film The Deb — a joyous movie that we’re very proud of and are looking forward to sharing with audiences.”
The spokesperson concluded: “For her to promote a false narrative to advance her own agenda undermines the film and all the people who worked on this project.”