One of Hollywood’s most high-profile legal disputes, a defamation lawsuit brought by actor Charlotte MacInnes against A-lister Rebel Wilson over claims made during production of Wilson’s directorial debut *The Deb*, has reached its final stage after two weeks of hearings at Sydney’s Federal Court. As Justice Elizabeth Raper prepares to issue a ruling, closing arguments delivered Friday painted sharply conflicting portraits of the two stars at the center of the case.
The dispute traces back to an incident at Bondi Beach in September 2023, when producer Amanda Ghost suffered a sudden medical episode that left her with severe hives and uncontrollable shaking. After the incident, Ghost and MacInnes — Wilson’s co-star in the upcoming musical comedy — took a bath together in swimwear to help ease Ghost’s symptoms.
Wilson has claimed that MacInnes privately told her she felt uncomfortable following the bath, before later retracting the complaint to advance her acting career. In a series of 2024 Instagram posts, Wilson publicly shared these claims, moves Sue Chrysanthou SC, MacInnes’ barrister, described as a public takedown of the young rising actor. MacInnes has repeatedly denied ever raising a complaint of discomfort or misconduct, saying the entire narrative was fabricated by Wilson.
In her closing submissions, Chrysanthou delivered a blistering attack on Wilson’s credibility, arguing that testimony from the Hollywood star’s own witnesses had completely undermined her version of events. “She is a fantastical liar who has made up terrible, terrible allegations against multiple people, and her own witnesses have discredited her,” Chrysanthou told the court. She further argued that any claim of sexualized misconduct was inherently illogical, given the context of the emergency incident: “On the question of inappropriate and sexual behaviour, when one accepts the circumstances of why they were in the bathroom in their swimmers, freezing, one could hardly imagine a less sexy environment for some kind of harassment to occur. Shaking and hives…it’s not exactly an environment where one would accept some kind of sexual approach. It defies logic.”
Chrysanthou highlighted key inconsistencies in Wilson’s testimony, most notably her claim that she reported the alleged complaint to local film producer Greer Simpkin the day after the incident and was instrumental in the decision to move MacInnes out of the shared Bondi penthouse. Simpkin — called as a witness by Wilson’s legal team — testified that she first learned of the incident a full week later, when Ghost approached her to arrange the move, directly contradicting Wilson’s account. Chrysanthou called Simpkin’s testimony “devastating” for Wilson, saying the entire narrative of Wilson taking prompt responsible action as director was a deliberate fabrication, not an innocent mistake. “This is a concoction by Ms Wilson … that she apparently took responsible steps as a director and reported it to the local producer, and then took advice from her to raise it with Ms Ghost. This is not an error, this is a concoction,” she said.
Rebuffing the claim that Simpkin’s testimony destroyed Wilson’s credibility, Dauid Sibtain SC, Wilson’s lawyer, argued the producer did not have a clear, flawless recollection of the timeline of events, and had simply given the best testimony she could offer. Sibtain pushed back against the assertion that Wilson had invented the story, arguing there was no logical motive for his client to disrupt production harmony and create conflict between Ghost and MacInnes. He maintained that Wilson is a “witness of truth” who accurately reported the complaint she received, noting “A senior producer and a junior actor being in a bath together, if anyone heard that and no other facts, one would assume a complaint would be imminent.” He also counterclaimed that MacInnes had given false testimony under oath, pointing to what he described as evasive answers about the professional benefits MacInnes had received through her connection to Ghost.
Chrysanthou rejected the defense’s arguments outright, retorting: “That’s what she does. She is a liar who makes up stories about people, it’s hard to explain why.” She also told the court that the lawsuit had taken a devastating toll on the young actor, who has not received new acting work since the dispute became public and has suffered from severe anxiety that has disrupted her sleep and appetite. “It’s actually beggars belief my friends have suggested that my client is living her dreams,” Chrysanthou said. “No young woman dreams to be pulled into the spotlight by a celebrity…and lied about.”
After closing arguments concluded, Justice Raper reserved her decision, with no timeline for a ruling released as of yet.
