Rebel Wilson is being accused of funding efforts to publicly harm a Hollywood producer's reputation.
Amanda Ghost's latest filing in her defamation case against the actress, 46, includes alleged correspondence between Wilson and publicist Melissa Nathan that Ghost claims shows them discussing the creation of anonymous websites about her, according to documents filed Aug. 25 in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by USA TODAY.
Wilson's attorney, Allyson Thompson, addressed the allegations in a statement to USA TODAY, calling Ghost's motion "by its very nature, one-sided and thus incomplete. This case is in active litigation and involves thousands of documents and a large number of witnesses."
"There are two sides to every story and Ms. Wilson
looks forward to telling her side at the trial in this disputed matter. There are key defense issues that will be addressed in due course," Thompson concluded.
Rebel Wilson, Amanda Ghost legal battle stems from a falling out over 'The Deb'
Ghost met Wilson while working on the 2024 musical "The Deb," which marked the star's directorial debut. In July of that year, Ghost and other producers sued Wilson after she made an Instagram post claiming they embezzled funds from the film and were trying to halt it from premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Wilson countersued for embezzlement, breach of contract and sexual misconduct. In August 2024, amid the legal battle, a website containing a series of accusations about Ghost appeared online.
The site called Ghost "the Indian Ghislaine Maxwell," referring to the woman serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse and traffic underage girls. It also labeled Ghost a "con artist, a thief and a pimp" who worked "procuring young women for the pleasure of the extremely wealthy."
Ghost's new motion showed an alleged Aug. 5, 2024, text from Nathan to Wilson, saying it would cost $110,000 for an "untraceable site – satellite, ghost server, ghost hosting, full build, maintaining and full algorithmic push across all platforms."
The next week, the "Pitch Perfect" star followed up and asked, "Question – did you receive the text for the website?" Nathan replied, "We have full text for the website [...] Your business manager has already sorted this with Bryan’s office. It will be up shortly once this is done," seemingly referring to attorney Bryan Freedman.
On Aug. 11, 2024, an employee of Nathan's publicity firm emailed her, writing, "Let me know if this works better :)." The remainder of the email contained the same content that Ghost alleges was later published on two websites. Wilson later cited the websites in her legal defense as evidence that Ghost had a history of negative publicity.
In her motion, Ghost alleged that Wilson hired Nathan, her firm, Freedman and digital strategist Jed Wallace, noting that Blake Lively later accused the same group of participating in a smear campaign against her on behalf of Justin Baldoni. Nathan, Freedman and Wallace have denied Lively's allegations. Lively and Baldoni settled their legal dispute in May.
In a deposition transcript from last month included in Ghost's filing, Wilson said, "I'm not sure what untraceable site means." When asked if she remembered sending the messages, Wilson replied, “I don’t recall sending or receiving these texts. I may have.”
The motion does not contain evidence that the $110,000 was ever paid, so Ghost is asking Nathan and her PR firm to turn over their financial records involving Wilson. Their trial is scheduled to begin in January 2027.
USA TODAY reached out to Freedman and Nathan through her PR firm, which declined to comment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rebel Wilson accused of funding $110K 'untraceable' sites to smear film producer
