Judge likely to eviscerate Rebel Wilson's wild cross-complaint against movie producers

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Superior Court judge on Tuesday said he would likely strike nearly all of a cross-complaint filed by actress Rebel Wilson against three movie producers.

The judge did not say whether or not he would allow Wilson to amend her complaint a second time.

The messy and sprawling legal dispute concerns an Australian musical comedy, “The Deb,” directed by Wilson. In 2024, months before the film was set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Wilson posted a video on Instagram in which she told her 11 million followers that movie’s producers — whom she called “fuckwits” — were trying to block the opening. She went on to accuse them of “inappropriate behavior towards the lead actress of the film [and] embezzling funds from the film’s budget,” conduct she called “vile and disgusting.”

The three producers — singer/songwriter and former record executive Amanda Ghost, her husband Gregor Cameron and executive producer Vince Holden — sued Wilson for defamation, accusing her of being a “bully” who tried to gain a screenwriter credit on the movie and falsely accused Ghost of sexually harassing an actress on set, and all three producers of embezzlement when she didn’t get her way.

Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actress in “The Deb,” has said in a court filing that she was “deeply disturbed” by Wilson’s accusations, and denied witnessing or experiencing any misconduct by Ghost.

Wilson then countersued the producers for breach of contract and intentional misrepresentation, among other causes of action. The complaint included a wide array of accusations, many of them leveled at Ghost, a longtime songwriter who shared a credit on the number one hit single by James Blunt “You’re Beautiful.” In her cross-complaint, Wilson said Ghost had “lied about her contributions and bombastically claimed an ownership percentage to [Blunt’s song] of which she was wholly undeserving.”

Ghost, Cameron and Holden filed a demurrer, a motion arguing the complaint fails to state a sufficient cause of action, in which they said Wilson’s claims “are pure fiction and will be conclusively disproven at trial.” They also filed motion to strike large portions of the complaint, which they said contains “numerous gratuitous, abusive, and irrelevant allegations.”

“Wilson’s allegations cross the line from merely implausible into pure fantasy,” they wrote in their motion. “The primary purpose of the [complaint] appears to be to vent Wilson’s animosity and smear the reputations of the various cross-defendants; thus, it is laden with improper personal attacks that are as irrelevant as they are salacious.”

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas Long said he agreed that many of the lawsuit’s details were not relevant to the causes of action.

“That’s not the kind of stuff that I will be letting in,” Long said. “It’s just not gonna be what you’re allowed to put on when this case goes to trial.”

Long said he would agree to the motion to strike and the demurrer, effectively whittling the lawsuit down to little more than a nub. The only question, he said, is whether or not he would allow Wilson to amend her cross-complaint a second time.

Wilson’s attorney Melody Kramer promised the third draft of the complaint would be stronger.

“The pleading isn’t as clear as it could have been,” Kramer acknowledged. “I do anticipate that in second amended complaint, Amanda Ghost will be more specifically a party to the oral contract.”

“What exactly are you going to allege?” Long asked skeptically.

Kramer said there would be “more specificity” concerning the oral contract Ghost is accused of breaking.

“It’s sort of there, but it’s not as clear as it could be,” Kramer said.

“I’m still not convinced that the amendment would be viable,” Long said.

Samuel Moniz, the attorney representing Ghost and the other two plaintiffs, urged the judge not to allow Wilson to refile the complaint.

“Frankly, I haven’t heard any real level detail — how specifically the pleading is going to be changed,” Moniz said.

The defamation lawsuit filed by Ghost, Cameron and Holden against Wilson remains active. Wilson had filed an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss the complaint, on the grounds that her actions were protected by the First Amendment, but that effort was rejected by a judge. A jury trial has been tentatively scheduled for October.

Ghost herself has also filed a cross-complaint against Wilson, accusing the “Pitch Perfect” actress of hiring “PR professionals to launch a shockingly low and racially charged attack on another professional woman, all to get her own way in a business dispute and destroy the reputation of a woman who dared to stand up to her.”

The complaint accuses Wilson of hiring high-powered public relations executive Melissa Nathan to spearhead a smear campaign against her — by, among other things, setting up a website, amandaghostsucks.com. The website, which appears to have been taken down, called Ghost a “destroyer of worlds,” and the “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell,” claiming that Ghost procured women for a “Russian mafia financier.”

Wilson has filed another anti-SLAPP to dismiss the cross-complaint. Last week, Long took the rare step of allowing Ghost to conduct limited discovery to oppose motion.

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