Rebel Wilson’s PR team had allegedly concocted a plan behind closed doors to implicate the producer of The Deb in sex trafficking by creating anonymous websites accusing them of doing the same. The alleged smear campaign is said to be solicited by Rebel against the producer Amanda Ghost.
In the recording, which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, digital fixer Jed Wallace wanted to paint Ghost as a “madame and was giving instructions to entertainment publicist Melissa Nathan on how to make it happen”.
He says, “We can’t just do, like, oh, she’s a b*tch, she sucks. It’s, like, it’s got to be really, really heavy and connected to something that heavy.”
Besides the two, Bryan Freedman, top Hollywood Lawyer, who was also Wilson’s then-counsel, was also part of this. The three can also be unsurprisingly connected back to the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni case, where Freedman played a central role.
According to the recording, Wallace, using Melissa’s PR agency, The Agency Group, wanted to deploy sites featuring character-assassinating claims against Amanda Ghost and was using the recording to relay these instructions to former TAG vice president Katie Case.
“Rebel Wilson has repeatedly denied any involvement in the creation of the smear websites — not just on television but in her sworn legal testimony. We, however, had long suspected that she not only contributed to the malicious sites but that she was the driving force behind them. The evidence we have submitted to the court in California supports that conclusion.”
The alleged plan was to claim that the producer provides billionaire Len Blavatnik, who is the owner of her production company AI Film, with sex workers.
Wallace says, “So basically what we need to do is, we need to create a path where we expose Amanda Ghost. Amanda Ghost is like the new Heidi Fleiss. Like, she masquerades as — the reason why she sucks so bad at music is because she’s actually getting hookers for Blavatnik, right, and that’s what she does.
He further adds, “I think you, me, and Bryan and maybe Katie, since she’ll write this thing, what we have to do” is “connect Amanda Ghost with Blavatnik.”
The smear website, which has now been deleted, was called “Amanda Ghost is a Destroyer of Worlds” and was created in such a way to portray that it was being run by a whistleblower. It stated,
“Failing in music she turned full pimp, reinventing herself as a theatrical producer alongside her husband while really procuring young women for the pleasure of the extremely wealthy.”
Rebel Wilson speaks up about sexual harassment on set
This all is an escalation since 2024, when producers Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden sued Rebel Wilson, who was making her directorial debut with the film, Deb, for defamation. The lawsuit came after Wilson had accused the producers of sexual harassment against the lead actress, Charlotte MacInnes and embezzlement. A countersuit was also filed by Rebel Wilson.
A few months ago, the actress opened up about the same on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes, where she stated,
“I felt that in my position as director I had to report that, and the moment I did, it started all the retaliation against me.”
She recalled one of the instances MacInnes shared with her.
Charlotte told her, “last night, Amanda came to me and asked me to have a bath and shower with her and it made me feel really uncomfortable.”
Rebel Wilson added, “One-hundred percent she told me that. She came to me and made what I inferred as a se*ual harassment complaint, and I had a duty to then act on it.”
Though according to Rebel Wilson, when she followed up with Charlotte, she changed her claims,
“How I would describe those texts, is I’m trying to maintain professional communication with Amanda Ghost — she’s the producer, she’s the access to the money for the film. This is weeks before we start shooting the movie, and I’m trying to keep a very professional communication, but at the same time I’m feeling very uneasy.”
However, there have been multiple public statements from the actress denying that she had been harassed. If this wasn’t all, one of the film’s production companies, AI films, also sued Rebel Wilson last year for allegedly blocking a distribution deal, and for financial and reputational damage caused to the company due to her threats and defamatory claims.
Those implicated by the recording, i.e., Wilson, Freedman, Nathan and Wallace, have declined to comment as of now.
Edited by Sohini Biswas