‘Rebel Wilson wants one of those sites’: PR’s testimony reveals alleged smear campaign

A former publicist for Rebel Wilson admitted to helping create an attack website for the Pitch Perfect star that went after a producer the actress was feuding with, according to documents filed in a US court.

Ms Wilson is facing multiple defamation cases brought against her in Australia and the US for allegedly ruining the reputations of 25-year-old West Australian actress Charlotte MacInnes, and a British movie producer named Amanda Ghost.

Since July 2024, Ms Ghost has pursued Ms Wilson in US courts on the basis she defamed her by accusing her on Instagram of “inappropriate behaviour” and “embezzling funds” during the filming of the yet-to-be released The Deb movie in Australia.

Dispute over who was behind website

Documents tendered in a California District Court before Justice Thomas Long show, Katherine Case, a public relations Vice President for US-based, The Agency Group, suggested Ms Wilson was allegedly behind a scheme to create websites to smear Ms Ghost.

Ms Wilson has launched a cross complaint against Ms Ghost for breach of contract and fraud in a wild legal dispute that now spans multiple complainants, defendants, countries, and courts.

According to the US court documents the original October 2024 cross complaint filed against Ms Ghost for breach of contract contained hyperlinks to the amandaghost.com and amandaghostsucks.com websites.

In a March 5, legal deposition given to Samuel Moniz a lawyer for Ms Ghost before the US court, Ms Case agrees that her boss at the public relations group, Melissa Nathan, told her.

“Rebel wants one of those sites.” To which Ms Case replies. “Okay”

“Should be a mixture of that document that I think Carolina pulled about Amanda Ghost, or the intern pulled, the voice note, and this”

In the deposition, Ms Case then agrees Ms Nathan then sent her a Microsoft Word document entitled “Amanda Ghost website.doc.”

Later, Ms Case agrees she sent an edited version of the Word document back to Ms Case which read: “This website is dedicated to telling the world the truth about Amanda Ghost who has maliciously tried to destroy the lives of countless artists.

“She is the Indian Ghislaine Maxwell, whose only friend in the world appears seems to be convicted felon Boy George.”

Ms Wilson denies claims

Ms Wilson has vehemently denied being behind the two alleged smear websites that targeted Ms Ghost. In other heavily redacted testimony submitted to the US court, a party appearing to be Ms Nathan seemingly supports her position and denies that Ms Wilson wanted the websites produced, or that was the logical inference from the messages she sent to her junior Ms Case.

Ms Wilson has also accused Ms Ghost’s UK film company of deliberately sabotaging the release of The Deb in an outcome that has caused her reputational and financial damage. A spokesperson for Ms Wilson had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

On March 10, Camille. M Vasquez, a partner for US law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter, Hampton, claimed that the court hearing testimony supported the disputed claims that Ms Wilson was behind the websites.

“Rebel Wilson has repeatedly denied any involvement in the creation of the smear websites - not just in television but in her sworn legal testimony. We, however, had long suspected that she not only contributed to the malicious sites but that she was the driving force behind them. The evidence we have submitted to the court in California today supports that conclusion.”

At the time the of disputed allegations, Ms Ghost worked as the chief executive of AI Film, which produced The Deb as the directorial debut of Ms Wilson.

Australian defamation case to proceed

On March 6 in the separate defamation case brought against Ms Wilson by Ms MacInnes it was ruled by Federal Court Justice Elizabeth Raper that the claim could not be transferred to the Supreme Court.

At the March 6 hearing, Ms Wilson’s lawyer also raised that a future April hearing for the case may be a problem as her wife is due to give birth that month.

The Australian lawsuit pits Ms MacInnes, an actress with one television credit and an unreleased movie, against one of the best-known Australian actresses in the world, who has appeared in 39 movies dating back to Fat Pizza in 2003.