Rebel Wilson is known for being a hilarious presence on the big screen, with celebrated roles in comedies like Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids. However, there’s nothing funny about the accusations she and the three producers of her directorial debut, The Deb, have made against each other. In the latest court filing, Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden are calling Wilson a “bully” as they ask for a stay in their court date to do further investigation.
The trio of producers filed their lawsuit against Rebel Wilson in July, after the actress took to social media with accusations of “bad behavior” on set of The Deb that included embezzlement and trying to keep the movie from premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (which it did in September). Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden alleged that the actress made up “false and malicious lies” in retaliation for not being given writing and music credits. The documents read (per The Guardian):
For years, Rebel has played the affable funny girl on the big screen and, off screen, portrayed herself as the champion of other female artists and whistleblower against abusive conduct within the film industry. This public persona, however, is a farce. Rebel is a bully who will disregard the interests of others to promote her own.
The producers’ suit also accused Rebel Wilson of exhibiting inappropriate behavior on set, disappearing for long periods of time and threatening to ruin the movie’s financiers on social media.
Last month, the actress responded in her own countersuit, saying that Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden were “scheming to embezzle” around $900,000 from The Deb’s budget, and that they’d retaliated against her for reporting it. She also repeated some of the allegations she’d made on social media that accused the producers of bullying and sexual misconduct. Wilson reported that Ghost allegedly sexually harassed 24-year-old Charlotte MacInnes, The Deb’s leading actress, which caused MacInnes to have a breakdown.
In addition to what she said about the producers, Rebel Wilson has also opened up about working 16-hour days on The Deb, saying that the stress of her work schedule affected her physical health, causing her to gain 30 pounds. She requested in her lawsuit that the defamation accusations against her be dropped.
A court date was set for November 21 to discuss Rebel Wilson’s request, but a new filing from the producers on October 29 has asked for a 90-day stay in order to further investigate. The trio alleges that after they filed their initial defamation suit against the actress, she threatened via email to “very publicly ruin them,” saying she was “going public.”
Days later, an anonymous website was created that allegedly called producer Amanda Ghost — who is reportedly of Indo-Trinidadian heritage — an “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell,” accusing her and Gregor Cameron (who is also Ghost’s husband) of “procuring young women for the pleasure of the extremely wealthy.”
The producers say they believe “discovery will yield further evidence that Wilson has aggressively spread such rumours about the plaintiffs,” therefore directly affecting whether their defamation claims should be thrown out.
This sounds like a terrible and messy situation for all involved, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens when each side pleads their case.