Comic Rebel Wilson fights appeal of her $3.6M defamation win
MELBOURNE, Australia — Rebel Wilson returned to court on Wednesday to fight a magazine publisher’s appeal of an order to pay the Australian actress a record 4.6 million Australian dollars ($3.6 million) in damages for defamation through articles that claimed she lied about her age, the origin of her first name and her upbringing in Sydney.
The 38-year-old comic, best known for the movies “Pitch Perfect” and “Bridesmaids,” sat with her mother Sue Bownds in a packed Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal in Melbourne but did not testify.
Bauer Media, which publishes Australian magazines Woman’s Day, Australian Women’s Weekly, NW and OK, argued that the largest defamation payout in Australia legal history awarded against the German company in September was “manifestly excessive.”
Bauer’s lawyer, Michael Wheelahan, said the publisher would not appeal the defamation verdict reached by a jury in July.