This, undoubtedly, is a Hollywood row that could get very ugly indeed. In one corner, is Rebel Wilson, one of the industry’s most outspoken actresses. A self-portrayed champion of women, she’s seemingly laser-focused on ‘calling out’ inappropriate behaviour in her industry, no matter how well known the accused may be, Daily Mail reports.
Indeed, earlier this year, the 44-year-old Rebel Wilson made controversial claims in her autobiography that she was sexually harassed by actor Sacha Baron Cohen – allegations he vehemently denied.
The furore resulted in many column inches devoted to Wilson’s book. But, it appears, the tables have now turned – and her on-set behaviour is under scrutiny.
Last week, three producers who worked with Rebel Wilson on her latest film, in which she made her directorial debut, have accused her of being a ‘malicious bully’.
According to the report by Daily Mail, Amanda Ghost, co-producer of The Deb, says that Rebel Wilson is ‘a bully with a history of making up malicious lies to hide her own lack of professionalism’
Rebel Wilson, they say, has a history of spreading lies ‘to hide her own lack of professionalism’.
They say she bullied staff, tried to seize writing credits from an up-and-coming screenwriter, and spread a rumour about one of her accusers being a sexual predator, knowing it was fictitious.
It gets worse. The trio claim Wilson included false allegations about Baron Cohen’s alleged inappropriate behaviour on the set of another film to promote the sale of her book. ‘She hypocritically played the victim in order to elicit public sympathy in the hope that it would advance her professional self-interest,’ the trio say.
Their accusations are laid bare in a thunderous lawsuit brought by the trio against Wilson. In full, it makes painful, excoriating reading, a portrait so damning that you can’t help but think bigwigs in the film industry will pause for thought before working with Wilson again.
So who are the authors behind such a withering indictment? Step forward Amanda Ghost, a 50-year-old North Londoner and an astonishingly successful figure in the world of music and film.
A three-time Ivor Novello Award winner, a Golden Globe nominee and a three-time Grammy nominee, Ghost co-wrote You’re Beautiful with James Blunt, along with songs for Beyonce and Shakira.
Baron Cohen with his ex-wife Isla Fisher – there are claims that Wilson made false allegations about his inappropriate behaviour on the set of another film to promote the sale of her book
Yet Ghost comes from a very unstarry background: growing up in a working-class household in Enfield, with her father from Trinidad and mother from Gibraltar, she’s spoken about her experience of intense racism as a youngster.
One of her neighbours hung white-power National Front posters from his home, dog mess was pushed through the family’s letterbox, people spat at her on buses and told her to ‘go home’.
Through graft and gumption, she rose to the top: a former president at Sony Music for their Epic Records imprint, she is now the CEO of film company, AI Film, and a sister company, Unigram, which she founded with her husband, Gregor Cameron.
Their business partner is one of the most powerful men in music: Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the Ukrainian-born billionaire who owns most of Warner Music Group.
Ghost, her husband and their colleague, Vince Holden – who has had a 30-year career financing independent films and television – were working as producers with Wilson on a new Australian musical, The Deb, about two teenagers who make their mark on their town’s annual debutante ball.
Compared to 1994 Aussie hit Muriel’s Wedding, it is tipped for success and is supposed to debut at the Toronto Film Festival next month – until a blazing row broke out.
Wilson claimed that the British producers embezzled hundreds of thousands of pounds from the film’s budget, that Ghost sexually harassed an actress in the film and the producers were trying to stop the premiere out of sheer spite.
Last week Wilson told her 11million Instagram followers: ‘If the movie doesn’t play at Toronto, it’s because of these absolute f***wits.’ However the trio have issued an almighty retort to Wilson’s accusations in the form of a scorching defamation suit.
They have engaged attorney Camille Vasquez, who successfully represented Johnny Depp in his 2022 trial against former wife Amber Heard, and are seeking punitive and exemplary damages ‘in the maximum amounts provided by law’ for damage to their reputations, emotional suffering and distress, and compensation for lost opportunities caused by the negative publicity associated with Wilson’s allegations.
Clearly, then, Ghost is not taking this lying down. But so impressive is her history, it would have been surprising if she had let Wilson’s allegations go.
Take when Blunt wrote in his 2023 memoir that Ghost could take credit for only 10 per cent of You’re Beautiful’s lyrics. She swiftly retorted with sarcasm: ‘I hope… that James proves himself as one of the most important novelists of his generation.’
Part of her strong character, Ghost says, came from her father: an immigrant who became a driving instructor, and also worked in construction, owned shops and founded a textile company. She said he hard-baked a strength, drive and entrepreneurial will into her and her two older sisters.
She told an interviewer two years ago: ‘My father always said to me, you’ve got to work twice as hard. Once because you’re a woman, twice because you’re brown.’ As well as racist abuse, she also says she experienced ‘terrible institutionalised racism’ at her school which was almost all-white. ‘Only people who look like me and grew up where I grew up will understand it,’ she says. ‘The idea of success to me was always about getting away from where I came from, having enough money so I didn’t have to worry about food or where I had to live.’
When accused of unpredictability and ‘a penchant for profanity’ by a US journalist in 2010 – something Ghost fiercely rejected – she again hit back with a sucker-punch of a comment: ‘I am so fed up of seeing women labelled aggressive and bossy and domineering and abrasive, and men who have those same qualities get promoted to be CEOs of music divisions globally. I’ve had enough of it and I want to see it change.’
She then told her interviewer how she had heard that a male record executive was complaining that he ‘can’t bear Amanda Ghost, she’s so aggressive’. ‘And I’m like, yeah but if I was a man you’d give me a raise. Being aggressive is standing up for yourself and not lying on the floor and letting someone kick you in the face. Especially if you’re a brown woman.’
Last month Boy George, a friend for many years, mounted an equally impassioned defence of her against Wilson. In a self-made video, he said: ‘I know that these things [Wilson’s claims] aren’t true and I just can’t sit here and listen to this.
‘I met Amanda when she was 17 years old, she was working in a club, and I’ve watched her rise to become [a] president [at] Sony Music to running a film company and she is a strong powerful woman. Sometimes other strong powerful women don’t like it when they see themselves.’
The implication from George, then, seems clear: Wilson may have been threatened by Ghost’s success. So what, then, is the truth behind this showbiz fallout?
We know the three British producers were brought on board in February 2023 to co-produce The Deb, adapted from a stage play of the same name by Australian Hannah Reilly, the recipient of a scholarship award created by Wilson.
The score, described as ‘joyful pop,’ was written by Australian musician Megan Washington.
The film centres on socially inept country bumpkin teenager Taylah and her hyper-woke city cousin Maeve who find themselves humiliated in the rural Australian town of Dunburn and join forces to attend the annual debutante ball as a way of finding redemption.
Although Wilson’s production company Camp Sugar Productions had previously acquired the rights to The Deb script, the actress did not invest her own money into the project and needed help. Wilson’s life had certainly been eventful up until this point.
(Source: Daily Mail)