Speaker 1: Today's Biggest News from the Australian Unclair Harvey with the
Speaker 1: Front's afternoon Headlines. Actress Rebel Wilson has successfully defended herself
Speaker 1: in a defamation case brought by younger actor Charlotte McKinnes,
Speaker 1: who starred in Wilson's twenty twenty four movie musical The
Speaker 1: deb McInnis claimed Wilson defamed her in a series of
Speaker 1: social media posts in which mcinness claimed Wilson implied she
Speaker 1: was a liar and a sellout, as well as breaching
Speaker 1: her confidence. Wilson denied the claim, saying the posts were
Speaker 1: not defametry and that even if they were, they were
Speaker 1: substantially true. The dispute stems from an incident on five
Speaker 1: September twenty twenty three, when mcinness and demand a Ghost,
Speaker 1: a producer of the movie, went for a swim at
Speaker 1: Bondi Beach in the cold spring surf and then ended
Speaker 1: up trying to warm themselves in a bathtub at Ghosts
Speaker 1: nearby apartment. Ghost claimed she suffered an allergic reaction to
Speaker 1: the cold water. The judge found mcinness told Wilson the
Speaker 1: next day about the episode, and she accepted Wilson's claim
Speaker 1: that mckinness said it had made her uncomfortable. Mckinness denied
Speaker 1: ever telling Wilson about the incident, Just as Elizabeth Raper
Speaker 1: said she found just one of the nineteen defamatory imputations
Speaker 1: claimed by mckinness had actually been made in Wilson's posts.
Speaker 1: That was Wilson's suggestion. Mckinness later changed her story about
Speaker 1: feeling uncomfortable about the bath with ghost. The judge said, however,
Speaker 1: the post was not defametry. She said it had not
Speaker 1: seriously harmed mckinness's reputation and that it was substantially true.
Speaker 1: That is, the judge accepted that mckinness did tell Wilson
Speaker 1: she was uncomfortable. In her judgment, Raper found mckinness did
Speaker 1: find the bathtub incident bizarre and that it did make
Speaker 1: her uncomfortable. She said, while she was not required to
Speaker 1: make any finding about whether the conduct was sexualized in
Speaker 1: any way, she believed mcinness said something to Wilson about it.
Speaker 1: Raper said it was her view that mckinness changed her
Speaker 1: story at least in part because she was concerned she
Speaker 1: was losing control of the situation and sought to contain
Speaker 1: it and to walk back her complaint. Raper said both
Speaker 1: mcinness and Ghost were unreliable witnesses. She described Ghost as
Speaker 1: an immensely powerful producer who used her power and could
Speaker 1: be aggressive and intimidating. She said Ghost had lied about
Speaker 1: going for a second swim with mcinness just days after
Speaker 1: the first episode. The judge was also critical of mcinness,
Speaker 1: saying the actress had a self assured demeanor and lacked
Speaker 1: insight as to her place in the world. She said
Speaker 1: mckinness's evidence was unsatisfactory and that mckinness gave an air
Speaker 1: of nonchalant casualness in the witness box when presented with
Speaker 1: inconsistencies in her account. The judge said Wilson maintained her
Speaker 1: composure in the witness box and never raised her voice.
Speaker 1: She said, and she accepted Wilson's account of the event
Speaker 1: even though quote she had a propensity to exaggerate, to
Speaker 1: be suspicious, and to draw longbows from evidence. Raper ordered
Speaker 1: that the application be dismissed and that McKinnon's pay Wilson's costs,
Speaker 1: which are likely to stretch into hundreds of thousands or
Speaker 1: millions of dollars. It's the second big win for Wilson
Speaker 1: in Australian courts. In twenty seventeen, she was awarded four
Speaker 1: point seven million dollars by the Victorian Supreme Court after
Speaker 1: suing the publisher of magazine Woman's Day, although this sum
Speaker 1: was knocked down on appeal to six hundred thousand. You
Speaker 1: can check out that story live right now at the
Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. Plus come back to the
Speaker 1: front first thing in the morning for something really fun.
Speaker 1: Our senior wine writer Nick Ryan has tasted and reviewed
Speaker 1: the latest release of Australia's most famous and valuable red wine,
Speaker 1: Penfold's Grange, and we talk about the most expense and
Speaker 1: the cheapest winds to have crossed Nick's palett. That's right here,
Speaker 1: Thursday morning,