Rebel Wilson has been sued by the producers behind her directorial debut film, The Deb - an Australian comedy musical film.
This lawsuit, filed on July 12, comes just days after Rebel took to social media to call out the producers of her film for "bad behavior" after they allegedly withdrew her film from the Toronto International Film Festival.
Rebel's accusations
The lawsuit comes as Rebel took to Instagram to call out the "so called producers" of The Deb who allegedly stopped the movie from premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival after being offered the opportunity to close it.
She named producers Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and executive producer Vince Holden as the three in particular who allegedly sought to "bury" the film which "hundreds of people put their heart and soul into".
She called it "beyond devastating", as she accused them of "bad behavior" on set, including "big things" like "inappropriate behavior towards the lead actress" and "embezzling funds from the film's budget, which we really needed because we're a small movie".
Rebel added that since reporting their behavior, she was met with "absolute viciousness and retaliatory behavior", as she recalled trying to film the movie and being met "at every step of the way" with these people "trying to make my life hell".
Details of the lawsuit
The Australian actress faces a defamation lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, in which Amanda Ghost, Gregor Cameron and Vince Holden deny her claims of embezzlement and inappropriate behavior towards the lead actress of the film.
They also raised their own accusations about Rebel's own conduct, saying in the legal document: "She flatly refused to collaborate with Plaintiffs, absconded from the Film for months at a time, behaved unprofessionally with employees of the Film, and repeatedly made unauthorized and improper disclosures about the Film."
According to the filings, "the dispute between Plaintiffs and Rebel came to a head" when she expressed an interest in wanting a co-writing credit and rights to the film's original music.
They accused her of seeking credit for work she did not do, overshadowing "young, upcoming artists who truly deserved the credit".
Explaining why they withdrew The Deb from TIFF, the producers explained that they "had to consider carefully whether to proceed with marketing the Film while it was embroiled in numerous credit and licensing disputes instigated by Rebel." While they "continuously attempted to resolve the disputes in good faith", they claimed the actress "had other ideas."
They continued that Rebel "attempted to force the issue and bully them into capitulating to her other unreasonable demands" through her large social media platform, accusing her of spreading "malicious and baseless lies about [the producers]."
Rebel's response
In response to the lawsuit, Rebel posted a photo on Instagram of herself on set with her cast and crew, which she captioned: "It’s not defamation if it’s the TRUTH (those ‘producers’ who I mentioned in my last post have just filed a defamation suit against me and sent to the press)! Let our cool movie play at Toronto and stop messing about with a rubbish defamation suit against me!"