Rebel Wilson returns to the witness box in high-stakes defamation battle

• Watch the hearing live here from 9.30am (AEST) via the Federal Court

Rebel Wilson is facing another day of cross-examination in the Federal Court in Sydney as she fights a defamation case brought against her by one of the stars of her directorial debut.

Wilson, 46, is at the centre of a welter of litigation, including a US lawsuit, brought against her by her international co-producers on The Deb, an Australian musical film released earlier this month.

She is also being sued for defamation in the Federal Court by a lead actor in the film, Charlotte MacInnes, 27, over a series of comments on Instagram.

Wilson started giving evidence in the nine-day defamation trial on Tuesday and returned to the witness box on Wednesday for further cross-examination by MacInnes’ barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC.

MacInnes alleges Wilson defamed her by suggesting she was a “sellout” and a liar who recanted a complaint to Wilson about one of the film’s producers, Amanda Ghost, in return for further career opportunities.

MacInnes told the court last week that she “never made a complaint” to Wilson and “didn’t walk back anything”.

Wilson alleges MacInnes “changed her story” and is seeking to prove that this is true to the civil standard, on the balance of probabilities.

Chrysanthou put to Wilson on Tuesday that she had “bullied and harassed” MacInnes “publicly and privately”.

“That’s absolute nonsense,” Wilson said.

Wilson also denied bullying and harassing Ghost and the film’s writer Hannah Reilly, who wrote the stage production of The Deb and developed the script for film.

The court has heard Wilson and Reilly had a falling out after Wilson sought a writing credit for the film.

The Australian Writers Guild’ found in favour of Reilly in 2024 in a binding arbitration, and she received sole credit for writing the screenplay. Wilson received an additional writing credit.

Wilson made the comments at the centre of the lawsuit in Instagram stories between September 2024 and July last year.

She suggested MacInnes made “a complaint to me as director” that Ghost “asked her to have a bath and shower with her and it made her feel uncomfortable”, but the young actor later “changed her story” to advance her career. MacInnes denies the claims.

Neither woman was named in that Instagram story, but it contained identifying information.

There is no dispute that MacInnes and Ghost shared a bath on September 5, 2023, while they were wearing their swimming costumes.

MacInnes and Ghost say it was in response to a medical episode in which Ghost had a reaction to cold water after swimming at Bondi Beach. At the time, the pair were staying at a rented Bondi apartment – along with Ghost’s assistant, who was head of music at Ghost’s production company – during rehearsals for The Deb.

Wilson alleges MacInnes confided in her the following day that the incident made her uncomfortable, a claim MacInnes denies.

What is not disputed is that Wilson called MacInnes on September 7, 2023, to check in, before texting Ghost: “Charlotte says all good. She just meant ‘it was a bizarre situation’ not that she felt personally uncomfortable x.”

But Wilson raised the incident again some weeks later. Chrysanthou claims she did so as “leverage” amid a commercial dispute with the film’s producers, an allegation Wilson denies.

The hearing continues.

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