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Rebel Wilson tells defamation trial she was not behind websites that attacked producer | Rebel Wilson

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Hollywood star Rebel Wilson has denied lying as she maintains she had no involvement in websites that attacked a producer with whom she is feuding.

The Pitch Perfect star is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the Australian lead actor of the musical comedy The Deb.

MacInnes claims she was defamed by social media posts from Wilson that suggest she is a liar who retracted a sexual harassment complaint to advance her career.

Wilson claims the young actor confided that she felt uncomfortable after sharing a bath in swimwear with The Deb co-producer Amanda Ghost following a medical episode in September 2023.

MacInnes denies making the complaint and says her reputation has been damaged by suggestions she retracted it for a lead role and a record deal.

The court heard the claims were referenced in smear websites created by a crisis PR team that described Ms Ghost as an “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell” and a sex trafficker.

Giving evidence in the Federal Court on Tuesday, Wilson denied authoring or ordering the creation of the malicious websites.

She said her US lawyer hired The Agency Group to assist her with a legal dispute with her co-producers, repeatedly insisting the firm had not been commissioned to work for her.

The firm is also accused of creating smear websites against Hollywood actor Blake Lively on behalf of her co-star Justin Baldoni.

Wilson rejected suggestions from MacInnes’ barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC that she was lying and pretending to misunderstand questions.

“You know you’ve lied about this topic for a year haven’t you?” Chrysanthou asked.

“No,” Wilson responded.

The Bridesmaids star said anyone could have created the word document from which the content of the smear websites appeared to have been sourced.

The metadata records the author as Wilson’s company, but the actor denied any knowledge of the document and suggested anyone could have used the name.

Wilson said she didn’t think she would have been horrified by the allegations against Ghost on the websites because the producer had been bullying and harassing her at the time.

She was questioned about a previous statement that she regarded herself as a champion of women and considered her commitment to The Deb was proof of that.

“Do you still say you regard yourself as a champion of women?” Chrysanthou asked.

“Yes,” Wilson replied.

“If you look over my 25-year career, you can see many evidences (sic) of me supporting women”.

The Deb director denied mistreating MacInnes and Ghost while working with them on the film, labelling accusations of private and public bullying as “absolute nonsense”.

“Inappropriate behaviour from a person in power to an employee is a serious problem,” Wilson said.

She had smiled as she entered the courthouse but appeared more guarded when she got into the witness box.

Wilson falsely portrayed herself as a whistleblower who spoke up to protect MacInnes when she was actually using the alleged complaint as leverage in a dispute with her co-producers, Chrysanthou claimed.

“This is how this bully, apparently this saviour of women, the protector of the harassed, responds,” she previously told the court.

But Wilson raised her concerns with others even though she had doubts about the veracity of the alleged complaint, her lawyer Dauid Sibtain SC said.

The central issue is not whether MacInnes was a victim but instead whether she complained to Wilson and then altered her story, he said.

“She changed her story,” Sibtain said in his opening address.

“She did so to ensure her career as an actress and musician progressed by appeasing Ghost.”

Sibtain argued MacInnes’ reputation hasn’t suffered any harm at all as a result of the social media posts.

The trial continues.

Amanda Ghost arrives at the federal court in Sydney on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP



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David Guetta and Sia’s song Titanium got me through my fertility treatment | Dance music

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At the end of 2011, party season was under way but I was in no mood for festivities. Two years into fertility treatment, my body was pumped full of synthetic hormones and felt like a pin cushion, while my head was filled with both the fragile hope of having a baby, and the exhaustion of failed clinical attempts to do so.

I was in my late 20s. I met my husband when I was 22; we got married when I was 25. “I want to have kids young,” I’d told him. It was a feeling I’d harboured since my teenage years. But I’d also had the nagging sense that it might not come easily to me. As it turned out, my intuition was right. Approaching 28, I was a regular on the infertility merry-go-round.

I was recovering from my second miscarriage that year when I heard Sia’s raspy voice on the car radio belting out words that sounded emotionally weighty for an electronic dance number – her David Guetta collaboration, Titanium.

It’s not a song I would have necessarily rated or listened to again – I’m more likely to play 00s R&B and hip-hop – but it came at the perfect time in my life. I had forgotten how days felt before fertility drugs and the diarised cycles of administering them. I’d been constantly wearing a brave face and cramming in hospital appointments before and after work, going about my job through a fog of longing and hormones. It had left me in a “cry on the bedroom floor” kind of a heap. I needed something to drag the hope back into me.

I turned the radio up and listened to the lyrics: “I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose / Fire away, fire away.” It felt as if it was talking to and about me, issuing a riposte to all those shots of disappointment that had been fired our way. As Sia’s vocals ascended through the chorus with Guetta’s soaring synths – “Ricochet, you take your aim” – I cried, but I felt myself gaining power with her, too. “You shoot me down, but I won’t fall / I am titanium.” Those were the words I needed to hear.

I felt like a puppet pulled upright again. I streamed it on repeat in the days that followed. I might not have been able to face the work Christmas party but I wasn’t going to languish on the bedroom floor any more.

Over the next months, I spent a lot of time in my car, travelling to work and to fertility appointments to get my blood tested, hormones measured or insides scanned. Listening to Titanium became routine. Each time, its cinematic surge had the same empowering effect and I’d turn up the volume, wind down the windows and defiantly sing along in my terrible voice so it could wash over me.

The following May, when my husband and I headed to the clinic for another IVF embryo transfer, I let it motivate me; when we drove back from scans confirming we were six weeks, then 12 weeks pregnant, I celebrated with it. As I nervously made my way through my pregnancy, I turned to it when I needed the boost.

In January 2013, our first son was born. Today, he is the eldest of three: his brother arrived 15 months later, via IVF too (the last of our fertilised embryos) and four years later, another brother, without fertility treatment. We consider ourselves unspeakably lucky; for many, the outcome is not the same.

In our family, everyone knows Titanium is my fight song. It’s the only big commercial dance hit on my playlists, and a marker of something I overcame.

My kids call me in whenever it streams or plays on TV. When I made my husband a playlist for our 15th wedding anniversary, it’s the song that represented our 2011. And the other week, when he was out with friends, he sent me a voice note from the bar: he’d recorded it playing in the background.

There’s something all-consuming about fertility treatment: you view life only through the filter of your efforts to get pregnant. If you’re lucky, the filter lifts. It did for me, but the fight song remained. So, now, elsewhere in life, when I need a shot of strength and find myself alone in the car, down goes the window and on it goes.



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Parents 'facing uncertainty' as SEN children left without school places

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Amy Gibney says she is one of eight families at her child’s school to find out that they don’t have a place for next year.



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Edinburgh airport reopens after security alert but passengers warned of ‘knock on’ effect | Scotland

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Edinburgh airport reopened on Saturday morning after parts of the terminal building were evacuated on Friday night because of a security alert.

An explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to the airport to investigate what Police Scotland described as a “potentially suspicious package” discovered at about 6.50pm on Friday.

An evacuation was ordered and a police cordon was set up, with roads closed.

Passengers faced disruption as result of the operation and the airport warned that schedules would continue to be affected on Saturday.

In a statement at about 3am on Saturday, the airport confirmed it had reopened and would work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.

“Following investigations by specialist teams, the airport has now reopened.

“This incident will have knock-on impacts throughout today and staff are working hard to address these and support passengers.

“Operational teams are continuing to work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.

“Please check with your airline for the latest information on your flight.”

The statement did not provide an update about the examination of the suspicious package.



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