Rebel Wilson ‘lost roles after article accused her of lies’
REBEL WILSON lost big movie roles, developed a rash around her mouth and needed to use sleeping pills after a magazine publisher accused her of lying about her life, a court has heard.
The Australian actress, 37, told how her ‘world collapsed’ after Bauer media published articles claiming she had fabricated her age, name and upbringing.
The Bridesmaids star, who is originally from Sydney, is suing Woman’s Day and the Australian Women’s Weekly for defamation.
She accuses them of targeting her with ‘grubby articles’ and ‘nastiness’ during the ‘pinnacle’ of her success around the release of the hit comedy Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015.
Wilson’s lawyer Matthew Collins QC told Victoria’s supreme court in Melbourne on Monday: ‘Rebel Wilson is an Australian success story.
‘She is extraordinarily talented. But her success is the result of almost two decades of very hard work.
‘It’s a case of how this publisher refused to let facts get in the way of a good story.’ He also accused the company of trying to contact the star’s 86-year-old grandmother to dish the ‘dirt’ on her.
However, Bauer Media’s lawyer Georgina Schoff QC hit back insisting Wilson told ‘tall tales’ and had a ‘touch of fantasy’ about her upbringing. ‘They weren’t nasty articles,’ she said, adding Wilson lied about her age to journalist Caroline Overington.
She also said the star went to an elite boarding school and did not grow up ‘in a ghetto’. It was also claimed Wilson told Overington that her aunt was married to Walt Disney and gave her special access to the entertainment park as a child.
Wilson is set to take the stand herself later in the hearing.
Author: Andrei Harmsworth
