REBEL WILSON WINS DEFAMATION CASE BROUGHT BY CO-STAR

Rebel Wilson has won a defamation case brought against her by actor Charlotte MacInnes following a ruling by an Australian judge. Justice Elizabeth Raper dismissed the case on Wednesday, concluding that MacInnes had failed to establish that Wilson's Instagram posts caused or were likely to cause serious harm to her reputation. The judge ordered MacInnes to pay Wilson's legal costs. MacInnes, who played the lead role in Wilson's directorial debut film The Deb, had sued Wilson over a series of Instagram posts published in 2024 and 2025.

MacInnes alleged the posts falsely suggested she had withdrawn a complaint of sexual harassment against one of the film's producers in order to advance her career. She argued the posts exposed her to abuse and ridicule online whilst harming her employment prospects. During the trial, Justice Raper established that the only potentially defamatory meaning in Wilson's posts was an allegation that MacInnes had changed her account of an incident involving one of the film's producers. The judge ultimately ruled that this allegation was not defamatory.

The proceedings focused on a September 2023 incident involving MacInnes and producer Amanda Ghost. According to evidence heard in court, Ghost suffered an adverse physical reaction after swimming at Sydney's Bondi Beach and returned to a production apartment, where both women entered a bath wearing swimsuits to warm up. Both women told the court there was nothing sexual in their conduct, with Ghost stating she had been shivering uncontrollably and had developed welts after the swim. Justice Raper remarked that the circumstances surrounding how they came to be in the bath were unusual.