Australian comedian and actress Rebel Wilson is facing serious allegations in an ongoing defamation case in Australia, including claims that she arranged to have intimate images of the woman suing her sent to that woman’s entire contact list, and that she disposed of her phone before it could be examined by lawyers.
The case centers on Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actress in Wilson’s directorial debut, “The Deb,” an Australian film that has performed poorly at the box office since its release. MacInnes filed a defamation suit against Wilson.
According to testimony heard in court this week, MacInnes alleges that just three days after she filed that lawsuit, her Snapchat account was accessed without her permission and one of her private images was distributed to everyone in her contact list. MacInnes has stated she believes Wilson hired someone to carry out the breach.
When Wilson was questioned about the Snapchat incident while on the stand, she responded by saying, “You’re saying I’m moonlighting as a hacker,” a deflection that drew attention because the question was not whether she personally carried out the hack, but whether she gave the instruction for someone else to do so.
Wilson also faced questioning about her phone, which lawyers sought to examine for text messages and other communications relevant to the case. Wilson claimed her phone had been stolen in London, a timeline that observers and commentators have found difficult to accept given that the alleged theft occurred just days before the device was required as evidence.
Separate communications recovered from other parties involved in the case have already been presented in court and painted a complicated picture of Wilson’s conduct during the production of “The Deb.” Text messages and emails retrieved from other individuals’ devices included exchanges involving Wilson that her own legal team spent considerable time trying to contextualize.
One of Wilson’s UK agents at the time, Charles Collier, spent hours on the stand and faced a notable moment when Charlotte MacInnes’s legal team revealed they had a recording of a Zoom call he had been discussing, prompting a visible reaction from the witness.
Wilson denies the allegations against her, and her legal defense is built on the argument that defamation cannot be established if the statements made were true. The case is expected to continue, with proceedings resuming on May 8th.
