Rebel Wilson, in town to sue the pants of Women’s Day, broke down in court today while describing the “orchestrated attack” that she says was designed to destroy her career.
“I just feel so distraught. Why would these women co-ordinate an orchestrated attack on me?” she said through tears. “I feel very attacked and hurt by it. It’s just part of their constant bullying and harassment of me and my family over the years. I’m known in Hollywood for being a very candid authentic person. There are parts of my life you could call colourful and interesting but that’s what happened to me and that’s my life story and that’s why I tell it.
“I’m sorry, it’s hard to talk… When I think about every single day since I was an adult working for something, and then this group of people who don’t know me want to rip me to shreds on information they know is false. To write these kinds of lies about somebody to ruin their reputation when they’ve worked so hard.”
She’s suing Bauer Media (which publishes Women’s Day) for a series of eight articles published in 2015 that claimed she lied about her age, among other things.
Women’s Day reached out to an anonymous source who left a comment on an article on 2012, claiming that Rebel was 33-years-old, rather than the 26 she was claiming.
Wilson told the jury today that magazines like Women’s Day were “hungry at this point to write anything at all negative about me. I don’t have a drug past, some weird sex tape … there’s nothing really negative to say about me. Here’s one little comment on a story and they’re kind of like vultures swopping in to contact this person.”
At the time, and after consulting with legal, the magazine chose not to publish the story, but paid the source $1,000 for their troubles. However, the story was published in 2015 on the same release date as ‘Pitch Perfect 2‘, in which Wilson stars.
“They did risk it two years later and here I am now,” she said. “If [the journalist] did about five minutes’ research on the internet she could have worked out that there are problems with the story.”
Wilson’s evidence is expected to take three days.
