‘The Deb’ Star Charlotte MacInnes Appeals Defamation Loss to Rebel Wilson, Seeks New Trial

Australian singer and actress Charlotte MacInnes has filed an appeal challenging the dismissal of her defamation lawsuit against Rebel Wilson, escalating a legal dispute that has played out publicly since Wilson's directorial debut hit a wall of controversy behind the scenes.

MacInnes, who starred in Wilson's film The Deb, submitted a notice of appeal to Australia's Full Court of the Federal Court on Thursday, just one day after a judge ruled in Wilson's favor and threw out the original case.

The move signals that MacInnes has no intention of letting the matter rest, despite losing the first round in court. According to the Sydney Daily Telegraph, the appeal accuses Wilson of offering "false evidence" and making "dishonest statements" during the initial trial, allegations that strike directly at the credibility of the testimony that led to the case's dismissal.

The roots of the conflict trace back to a lawsuit MacInnes filed accusing Wilson of damaging her reputation through a series of Instagram posts. Those posts, according to the suit, implied that MacInnes had been sexually harassed by Amanda Ghost, a producer who worked on The Deb and who Wilson had separately sued for breach of contract and fraud.

MacInnes argued that Wilson's public statements tied her to an incident she never characterized the way Wilson did, and that the fallout caused real harm to her standing in the industry.

At the center of the case is a disputed night at Ghost's home near Bondi Beach on September 5, 2023, when Ghost and MacInnes went for an evening swim together. What happened afterward, in a bathroom at Ghost's residence, became the flashpoint for the entire legal saga.

Wilson addressed the incident in an Instagram video posted in July 2024, telling followers that Ghost had engaged in "inappropriate behavior" toward MacInnes that night. In the same video, Wilson went further, accusing Ghost of embezzling money from the film's production budget and of attempting to sabotage The Deb as payback for Wilson speaking out about the alleged misconduct.

MacInnes pushed back hard against that account once it became public. She has maintained that the bathroom incident had nothing to do with sexual harassment, instead describing it as a nonsexual reaction to a medical episode she experienced that night.

She has also directly disputed Wilson's claim that she ever told Wilson the encounter left her feeling uncomfortable, a detail that became a key point of contention once the case reached trial.

Now, with her appeal filed, MacInnes is asking the Full Court for more than just a reversal of the dismissal. She wants an entirely new trial, and critically, she wants a different judge to preside over it, a request that suggests her legal team believes the original proceedings were compromised in some way beyond just the final verdict.

MacInnes is also seeking to overturn a separate ruling that would have required her to cover Wilson's legal costs from the first trial, a financial burden that could compound the sting of the original loss.

The case has drawn attention well beyond entertainment circles given its connections to two separate legal disputes tied to The Deb's production, and Wilson's public comments about alleged misconduct on set.

Wilson has not issued a new statement addressing the appeal, and it remains unclear how quickly the Full Court will move to consider MacInnes's request.