Producers of “The Deb” sue for defamation

Rebel Wilson

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Rebel Wilson has been sued for defamation by three producers of her directorial debut. The Debafter accusing them of sexual harassment and embezzlement.

In an Instagram video on Wednesday, Wilson said she reported the producers last year when she found out “not little things, but big things” related to “inappropriate behavior toward the film’s lead actress” and “misappropriation of funds from the film’s budget.” She accused them of blocking the film’s premiere at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.

Producers Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden claim in a lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court that Wilson lied to The Deb at TIFF and also secure a credit as the film’s screenwriter.

The lawsuit describes a contentious relationship between the producers and Wilson, who allegedly refused to work with them, abandoned production for months and repeatedly made unauthorized and inappropriate statements about the film. The dispute, they claim, reached its peak when she attempted to strip Hannah Reilly, a recipient of Wilson’s theater grant, of writing credits for the film, despite a contrary ruling by the Australian Writers’ Guild in March, which found that the writing credits belonged to Reilly and that Wilson was credited as an “additional writer.”

When she didn’t get her way, Wilson falsely accused Ghost 2023 of sexually harassing a lead actress in the film, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says the actress “strongly denied any allegations of inappropriate behavior” by the producer, after which Wilson admitted she was not aware of any specific allegations of sexual misconduct. In her Instagram post on Wednesday, the producers say, she revisited the allegations, saying Ghost has “a history of doing these things, primarily towards music artists.”

Other alleged defamatory statements include the accusation that Ghost and Cameron embezzled funds from the film.

Despite The Deb When the film was selected for its TIFF debut, producers were suspicious because the movie was embroiled in numerous credit and licensing disputes allegedly instigated by Wilson. The lawsuit alleges that she tried to get the trio to give in to her demands by threatening to accuse them of inappropriate behavior on set in front of her 11 million Instagram followers.

The film, produced for $22 million, is based on a screenplay by Reilly, which is based on a stage play of the same name, also written by Wilson’s protégé.