A Sydney federal court judge dismissed a defamation case Charlotte MacInnes brought against Rebel Wilson on Wednesday, ordering the actress to cover Wilson’s legal costs and closing one chapter of a legal fight that has consumed the production of Wilson’s directorial debut.
Justice Elizabeth Raper ruled that Instagram posts Wilson published in 2024 and 2025 did not defame MacInnes, who played the lead role in “The Deb.” MacInnes had argued the posts painted her as a liar who invented, then abandoned, a sexual harassment complaint against producer Amanda Ghost to protect her acting career. She told the court the fallout brought online abuse and damaged her job prospects. Wilson rejected the accusation outright, describing herself in testimony as “known as a truth-teller.”
At the center of the dispute sat a September 2023 bathtub scene inside a rented Sydney penthouse, where MacInnes and Ghost said they climbed into warm water, both in swimwear, after Ghost’s body reacted badly to a cold-water swim at Bondi Beach. Raper called the circumstances surrounding the moment unusual, then found that MacInnes had indeed altered her account of the incident afterward — a shift the judge deemed real but not damaging enough to meet the legal bar for defamation. MacInnes, Raper added, never proved the posts caused or risked serious harm to her reputation.
The judge went further, questioning the credibility of all three central witnesses, including Wilson, before ultimately siding with the director based on how she behaved once the dispute became public.
MacInnes’ barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, had branded Wilson “a fantastical liar” during closing arguments in May. A representative for MacInnes had not commented on the outcome as of Wednesday evening.
Wilson thanked the Australian legal system in a lengthy Instagram post, calling “The Deb” a passion project years in the making and noting her second directorial effort, “Girl Group,” will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
The ruling does not end Wilson’s broader legal entanglement with the film’s producers. Ghost, along with producers Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden, are separately pursuing a defamation claim against Wilson in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging she waged a vendetta after being denied a writing credit — a case Wilson has countered with her own accusations of misconduct and financial impropriety.
