Charlotte MacInnes’s rebel wilson defamation lawsuit moved into closing arguments on Friday, with her barrister telling Federal Court that Rebel Wilson is “a fantastical liar” and accusing her of making up allegations. The dispute centers on Wilson’s social media posts about MacInnes and whether they crossed the line into defamation.
Sue Chrysanthou SC said, “We say Ms Wilson cannot be believed on anything she has said.” She also told the court that Wilson’s evidence had glaring inconsistencies and that the uncontested facts showed a medical episode occurred in September 2023, no one felt uncomfortable and a witness did not think anything untoward happened.
September 2023 Posts
MacInnes is suing over posts Wilson made about her after the pair’s work on The Deb, the musical comedy Wilson directed, co-produced and starred in. MacInnes says Wilson suggested she was a liar and a sellout who walked back a sexual misconduct complaint to further her career, a claim Wilson rejects.
Wilson said she told local producer Greer Simpkin about the alleged complaint on the day it was made to her in September 2023. But Simpkin gave evidence that she first heard Wilson say her co-star felt uncomfortable only when that was relayed by Amanda Ghost a week later, a gap that sits at the center of the credibility fight.
Ghost, Simpkin, MacInnes
Chrysanthou said Wilson lied to Ghost about receiving a complaint in order to create division between Ghost and MacInnes. She pointed to the text Wilson sent accusing the young actor of leaking information to the film’s writer, then argued that the evidence did not support Wilson’s version of events.
“She is a fantastical liar who has made up terrible, terrible allegations about multiple people and her own witnesses have discredited her,” Chrysanthou told the court. “One can hardly imagine a less sexy environment for some kind of harassment to occur – shaking and hives and tea provided by (the witness),” she said.
Federal Court Closing
The case now turns on whether the court accepts Wilson’s account or MacInnes’s version of the September 2023 events around the bath shared in swimwear after Ghost suffered a medical episode. If the judge prefers MacInnes’s evidence, the posts that framed her as dishonest and career-minded could be treated as defamatory rather than just a public dispute around The Deb.
For readers following the rebel wilson defamation lawsuit, the practical takeaway is simple: the fight has narrowed to credibility, not spectacle. Friday’s closing address put the burden on Wilson’s version of events, and that is usually where a defamation case is won or lost.
