I really hate to do two videos about movie stars so close together, but there are a few reasons I want to talk about the comedian Rebel Wilson from the Pitch Perfect movies today: first of all, because this story is related to issues of misogyny; second of all, because I don’t see it being discussed much here in the United States; third of all, because it further supports a point I have been repeating on here for FOUR YEARS; and fourth of all, because it’s really, really funny to me. Like, I laughed so hard about this that I had to share it.
And so, I will say as a mild warning, I will be talking about sexual assault but I honestly think the sheer absurdity of this news completely overwhelms that part of it, but I will understand if you want to avoid any reference to something like that. As always, cute video of Indy will be waiting for you at the end of this video. But really, I encourage you to watch this because if you don’t know where this story is going, you are in for a RIDE.
Okay. So. Rebel Wilson. I first saw her in a small role in the 2011comedy Bridesmaids, which was her first role here in the US after she enjoyed several years of success doing TV and improv in her native Australia. She went on to enjoy great success in loads of movies in Hollywood, but I kinda stopped paying attention, so I caught up just now and learned that she lost a bunch of weight, which is very empowering and/or disempowering depending upon how you feel about that, and she came out as being in a relationship with another woman, apparently to preempt a reporter named Andrew Hornery from forcibly outing her in The Sydney Morning Herald. And yes, his name IS Andy Hornery. I love that. I am 100% going to use “hornery” in the future. In the bedroom. To describe why I’m doing that particularly annoying thing to my partner.
Anyway, none of that matters. THIS next bit does and adds to the funniness to come: I also learned that in 2016, Wilson sued a magazine publisher for defamation, claiming that their article, “Just who is the REAL Rebel?” was defamatory and made her out to be a “serial liar who has invented fantastic stories in order to make it in Hollywood”.
Another “article included claims that the actress lied about her age, her real name, her upbringing and the fact she had lived in Zimbabwe for a year.
“A second Women’s Weekly article again raised Wilson’s age, and claimed the actress lied when she told US TV host David Letterman that she grew up in a disadvantaged part of NSW, when she instead grew up in the Sydney suburb of Cherrybrook.”
She told a jury that in fact, she had not lied about any of those things, and that the fault of it all was an “obsessed and weirdly jealous” former schoolmate who had given dubious information to journalists. A jury believed her and awarded her $4.5 million, which was appealed and reduced to half a million.
I know I talk about how rich and famous people abuse libel laws in order to silence criticism all the time, but hey, I wasn’t in the courtroom and I do not know what evidence she presented, but a jury of her peers ruled that Rebel Wilson was not, in fact, a serial liar who invents fantastic stories in order to make it in Hollywood.
Ahem.
Jumping forward, in 2023, Wilson began filming her directorial debut: a musical comedy called The Deb, set in and filmed in Australia. While the movie was completed and set to premiere in 2024 at the Toronto Film Festival, Wilson announced that the producers of the movie were purposely blocking its release and embezzling funds, with an extra accusation that one producer in particular, Amanda Ghost, had sexually assaulted the lead actress in the film.
In response, the producers are now suing Wilson for defamation, amongst other things.
So, there it is, right? A woman alleges sexual impropriety and the alleged perpetrator abuses libel laws to silence her, a tale I’ve discussed many times.
BUT WAIT! You know who else is suing Wilson for defamation? Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actress of the film, who Wilson says was the victim of the sexual assault. She’s suing because she says Wilson has made up this entire accusation.
In September of 2023, Ghost and MacInnes were swimming at Bondi Beach when Ghost got uncontrollably cold. MacInnes’s condo was nearby, so she rushed Ghost there and ran her a hot bath. To warm her more quickly, MacInnes joined her in the bath, with both women still wearing their bathing suits.
Weird, right? But everyone agrees that that’s what happened. However, Wilson claims that afterward, MacInnes told her that she felt victimized by the incident, and so Wilson had a duty to report it. Okay, great. The only problem with that claim? Well, I’ll let Tara Brown of Australia’s 60 Minutes tell you (minute 9:05).
Wilson says she was just trying to be professional, but Ghost and MacInnes are adamant that those texts say exactly what happened: McInnes was not upset, at all.
Wilson insists that MacInnes is now lying. Why would she lie about NOT being sexually assaulted? Well, simple: because she’s a gold digging whore. No, seriously, that’s what Wilson is arguing: MacInnes is lying because she wants to do more projects with Ghost. She’s victim-blaming someone who says they aren’t even a victim. That is actually impressive. Rebel Wilson has managed to take misogyny to a level I did not know was possible.
Wilson also claims that the producers stole money from the budget, which they say was just normal expenses that Wilson does not understand. And finally, Wilson claims that they purposely tried to stop the film from coming out just to hurt her. If preventing a completed movie from premiering doesn’t sound like a thing that movie producers normally do, well, so does Tara Brown (minute 15:45). Ah yes, movie producers famously do not care about money. They care about REVENGE!
The producers, for their part, say that the film couldn’t premiere at the Toronto film festival because at that time they were still fighting with Wilson over what they suggest is the actual reason for all of Wilson’s allegations: she wanted a writing credit on the film, but the Australian Writer’s Guild only gave her an “additional writing by” credit. That’s it.
So by this point in the story, I will say that I fully believed the producers and I thought Rebel Wilson might actually be insane. But what about that defamation lawsuit she won back in 2016, where she was found to NOT be a giant liar?
Well. You know who else won a jury defamation case, despite the fact that he was obviously in the wrong? Johnny Depp. I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, Rebecca, that has nothing to do with this case! You just can’t let go of the fact that you continue to be proven right about Johnny Depp, like when the Justin Baldoni/Blake Lively case hit the news and it was revealed that both Baldoni and Depp used the same PR firm run by Melissa Nathan to launch fabricated misogynistic smear campaigns against Amber Heard and Blake Lively, respectively. What does any of that have to do with Rebel Wilson?”
(60 Minutes video at 18:09)
That’s right! Rebel Wilson hired…I’m sorry, Rebel Wilson’s lawyer, I guess, hired THE EXACT SAME PR FIRM that Johnny Depp and Justin Baldoni hired to maliciously smear women they hated: Melissa Nathan. And in this case, I guess because the target was an otherwise unknown but wealthy woman, they couldn’t pull from the existing well of hatred for her online, so they REALLY went all out. According to these texts, they created websites that accused Amanda Ghost of running a worldwide sex trafficking ring and coining the term “the Indian Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Let’s watch Rebel Wilson’s incredible denial.
Ahhhhh the cringe!! Let’s just follow that up with actual audio of “digital fixer” Jed Wallace talking with Melissa Nathan about the plan.
Man, it’s really insane that the firm came up with “international sex trafficking ring” as a smear for this random producer lady, huh? I wonder where they came up with that? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Melissa Nathan, THE VERY SAME PUBLICIST hired by Johnny Depp, Justin Baldoni, and allegedly Rebel Wilson and/or her lawyer to viciously and misogynistically smear women they didn’t like, Melissa Nathan, was ALSO JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S PUBLICIST.
Back in 2017, Nathan hadn’t yet launched her own PR firm, and so she was working for Matthew Hiltzik as Vice President of Hiltzik Strategies, the firm was the one responsible for all those attempts to convince the world that Epstein was really just a cool science-loving philanthropist. And in May of 2017, one email from the Epstein files reveals that Melissa Nathan did, in fact, meet with Epstein herself as part of this job.
When people noticed this email and started sharing it online, it appears that SOMEONE activated a bot network to troll through social media platforms and respond to every post about the topic repeating the phrase, “This is blatant misinformation. Nathan never met Epstein.”
Sure, Jan.
So yeah, that’s the story: Rebel Wilson has joined the ranks of Johnny Depp, Justin Baldoni, and Jeffrey goddamn Epstein in hiring Melissa Nathan to help defeat their female opponents through blatant misogyny. I feel terrible for the producers of the Deb, but specifically for Amanda Ghost and Charlotte MacInnes for getting dragged into this completely bonkers drama, but at the same time, I am grateful for this new cringefest to witness AND for yet another chance to tell the world: I continue to be right about Johnny Depp.
