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By Isobel Roe
Topic:Courts
Actor Charlotte MacInnes arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)
Messages tendered to a Federal Court defamation case show actor Rebel Wilson knew the star of her directorial debut had "zero issues" with an incident Ms Wilson later described as "sexual harassment".
The incident is at the centre of the case brought by Charlotte MacInnes, who says Ms Wilson's claim that she walked back harassment allegations to score career opportunities is false.
The court heard Ms Wilson's wife posted a meme on Friday morning comparing Ms MacInnes to the forgetful fish Dory from the Finding Nemo movie.
Text messages from Rebel Wilson reveal she knew an actor had "zero issues" about a bathroom incident with a movie producer, despite the Hollywood star later describing it as sexual harassment.
Ms Wilson is being sued for defamation in Federal Court by Charlotte MacInnes, who plays the lead actor in Ms Wilson's debut directorial film, The Deb.
Ms MacInnes claims Ms Wilson has made incorrect public statements that the young actor was sexually harassed by a movie producer, Amanda Ghost, after a 2023 incident involving a bath in the producer's Bondi apartment.
She also claims Ms Wilson has made defamatory public posts accusing her of going back on her story, to get further acting jobs.
Ms Wilson denies the posts were defamatory. (AAP: Adelaide Lang )
Ms Ghost, an influential movie producer, has flown to Sydney from the UK to give evidence in person.
The court has heard the incident in question happened in the movie producer's bathroom at Bondi on September 5, 2023, where both Ms Ghost and Ms MacInnes ended up in a bath after Ms Ghost had a medical reaction to cold water.
Rebel Wilson's team have argued Ms MacInnes complained to Ms Wilson in person the next day that the incident made her feel uncomfortable, but Ms MacInnes has told the court she never made a complaint.
A text message exchange shown to the court, shows Ms Wilson texted Ms Ghost two days after the incident, having called Ms MacInnes to check she was OK.
Rebel Wilson:
Charlotte says all good she just meant "it was a bizarre situation", not that she personally felt uncomfortable x
So all good there
Amanda Ghost:
oh thank f***for that
OMG
That's hilarious
I nearly died
The court has previously heard that almost a year later, in July 2024, Ms Wilson posted a video to her Instagram page accusing Ms Ghost of misconduct towards "the lead actress of the film" [The Deb].
In August 2024, Ms Wilson allegedly requested her PR firm in the US to create a website about Ms Ghost, which accused the producer of being a "madam" who was "procuring young women for the pleasure of the extremely wealthy".
Ms MacInnes lodged the case after denying she walked back sexual harassment claims to score acting opportunities.  (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)
Under cross-examination by Ms Wilson's barrister Dauid Sibtain SC, Ms Ghost said she was initially "shocked' when Ms Wilson first told her Ms MacInnes had been uncomfortable about the bathroom incident, but "relieved" to receive the texts confirming there was no issue.
Text exchanges between Ms MacInnes and Ms Ghost shown in court have detailed the pair's close relationship, with both sending "love you" texts to each other during discussions about potential roles and recording contracts.
Ms Ghost told the court she was annoyed about the situation with Ms MacInnes, and that Ms Wilson had led her to believe Ms MacInnes had "made up a lie" about her.
"You thought that it was a lie as well, didn't you? Mr Sibtain put to Ms Ghost.
"At that point, yes," she replied.
Film producer Amanda Ghost, who has flown from the UK to Sydney to give evidence in the defamation trial between Ms Wilson and Ms MacInnes. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)
During a trip to Hamilton Island not long after the incident, Ms Wilson had talked about firing Ms MacInnes from the lead role in the movie, Ms Ghost told the court.
"Both you and Ms Wilson thought that Ms MacInnes was being a troublemaker?" Mr Sibtain asked.
"Ms Wilson presented it as such," Ms Ghost said.
The meme posted by Rebel Wilson's wife as the actor fights a defemation case. (Supplied)
An Instagram post made by Rebel Wilson's wife, Ramona Agruma-Wilson, was also tendered to the court by Ms MacInnes's barrister Sue Chrysanthou.
The post, shared to Ms Agruma-Wilson's 'story' on Friday morning, shows a picture of Dory, a forgetful fish character in the movie Finding Nemo.
The accompanying text reads: "I suffer from short-term memory loss … or do I? I can't remember."
Ms Chrysanthou suggested the post was intended to refer to her client's evidence to the court on Thursday, even though it did not name her.
She asked Ms MacInnes how that post made her feel.
"I felt as though she was mocking the evidence that I gave," Ms MacInnes said.
Mr Sibtain said the post was an "anodyne reference to a character from a movie".
Ms Ghost has also given evidence about a funding disagreement for The Deb which she said resulted in the breakdown of her friendship with Ms Wilson.
The court heard Ms Wilson raised concerns in September 2023 over extra fees added to the budget for film and music production company Unigram.
Unigram is co-owned by Ms Ghost and her husband, Gregor Cameron.
Ms Ghost said Ms Wilson became "volatile" when discussing the extra fees, which were eventually not charged.
Ms Ghost emailed the film's producers the following month, saying she was "extremely disappointed" about the disagreements that had transpired, and suggested a "pause" in production until the issue was resolved.
Ms Wilson's lawyers asked whether that was a threat to pull funding, but Ms Ghost said it was not.
She said while they maintained a cordial working relationship, her friendship with Ms Wilson broke down soon after.
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