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Rebel Wilson Wins Defamation Lawsuit against “Women’s Day”

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By Teresa Lo

Posted on June 16, 2017

Summary: Rebel Wilson won her defamation lawsuit against Bauer Media of Australia.

No one knocks down Rebel Wilson and gets away with it. This week, the comedic actress beat her homeland’s media giant after she filed a lawsuit that said they had published “nasty” articles about her that ruined her career. According to News.com, the comedian could walk away with millions.

“Defamation in Australia is capped for normal damages at just over $380,000,” media lawyer John Quill told 3AW. “But if you can prove that you’ve lost money, lost a contract or a job, then you get the value of that contract or job. In [Wilson’s] case, knowing the sort of money she can earn, that could be millions. So you’ve got normal damages and you’ve got special damages and the real question is whether she gets special damages because that’s where the big money is.”

The youthful-looking Wilson left her home country of Australia to make it in Hollywood in 2009. She had starred in millennial-centric films such as Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids, and her career was on a high until 2015. That year, Bauer Media’s website, Women’s Day, published eight articles that said Wilson had lied about her age, real name, and relationship to Walt Disney.

Before the Women’s Day posts, American media had stated that Wilson was 29 at the time, but she was really seven years older. However, Wilson said that she had not lied like the paper had said. Instead, she had not corrected journalists and had let them go with the information.

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Wilson also maintains that she had not lied about her name. Although born Melanie, she said her nickname really was Rebel and that her claim that she was related to Walt Disney was also true.

In court, Wilson had said that she originally laughed off the articles, but then things soured when she was dropped from big projects such as Kung Fung Panda 3. She decided to sue Bauer Media for defamation, and she said that their portrayal of her as a habitual liar lost her parts.

Bauer Media had said that their articles were light-hearted and mostly true. In their defense, they said that their posts did not hurt Wilson’s career.

The defamation trial took place in Melbourne, Australia and lasted for three weeks. Wilson had taken the stand where she had spoke in detail about how her Hollywood agents had warned her that the industry was ageist and told her not to mention her age during interviews. Her testimony lasted six days.

On Thursday, a jury consisting of six women awarded Wilson the win. Outside of court, she explained why she filed the lawsuit in the first place.

“I had to stand up to a bully, a huge media organization, Bauer Media, who maliciously took me down in 2015 with a series of grubby and completely false articles,” Wilson said. “There was a lot of mud slung at me, but obviously, I know my life story and I was here to tell my life of the story. I just look forward to rebuilding my career now that the record has been set straight,” Wilson said outside the court.