The Ongoing Insurgency

There’s a number of ways to look at this shock development:

Rebel Wilson plans to appeal yesterday’s ruling that Bauer Media pay her $600,000 in general damages, losing $3.9m in special damages.

She took to Twitter overnight to indicate her fury, presumably planning to pursue it with the High Court of Australia.

Oh right, the tweets:

I was hoping the Court of Appeal in Australia would deliver a reasonable judgement today….ummmmm seeing as that HAS CLEARLY NOT happened I look forward to appealing! There’s some really bizarre things in there guys that are so obviously challengeable!

Everybody knows I lost money after those maliciously defamatory articles were printed about me by @bauermedia in 2015. The learned trial judge and Australian jury on the case who heard all the evidence clearly agreed.

Was it wrong of me to pledge that the money received from the case was going to good causes?? To me, after working tirelessly day and night to rebuild my career, I thought it was the right thing to do.

But somehow the Court of Appeal have been absolutely flippant with regards to my economic loss, not to mention my overall hurt and distress at having to stand up to these bullies.

That’s now $4 million less going to less fortunate Australians and leaves a billionaire corporation, proven guilty of malicious defamation, being able to get away with their seriously harmful acts for a very low pay day! Clearly not fair. Come on Australia 🇦🇺

Actually, on second read… is she really planning to appeal? “I look forward to appealing” sounds like the kind of thing a celebrity tweets off the top of their head before getting proper legal advice. “There’s some really bizarre things in there guys that are so obviously challangeable!” But let’s take her at her word.

“Everybody knows I lost money”. We can think of at least one judge who disagrees.

Ignoring the contents of the Court of Appeal judgment, Rebel Wilson tweeted her Public Relations spin https://t.co/QkbNusZ1Zp
Paragraph 567 of the Court of Appeal judgment “we have concluded, decisively, that Ms Wilson has failed to prove her economic loss.”

— Ross Bowler (@BowlerBarrister) June 15, 2018

“Was it wrong of me to pledge that the money received from the case was going to good causes??” No it wasn’t. Did her future plans for the money have anything to do with the case? No they didn’t. Would it be wrong to point out here that part of the original case was based on the argument that Rebel Wilson’s public statements don’t always line up with objective reality? Well, she won the case, so that argument clearly isn’t true. This just in: Wilson really is related to Walt Disney.

“After working tirelessly day and night to rebuild my career”. Hey, nobody asked her to do that.

“But somehow the Court of Appeal have been absolutely flippant with regards to my economic loss”. Because still getting to take home $600,000 means nothing?

“That’s now $4 million less going to less fortunate Australians”. Wait, didn’t she originally say:

What happens tomorrow is to do with the losers @bauermedia quibbling about how much they now have to pay me. While this case was never about the money for me, I do hope to receive as much as possible to give away to charities and to support the Australian film industry. 🐨

— Rebel Wilson (@RebelWilson) June 13, 2018

“Support the Australian film industry”? Putting aside the question of whether they fit the definition of “less fortunate Australians”, when was the last time Wilson made a film here? That’d be the 2011 hit A Few Best Men. Maybe if this particular internationally famous superstar wanted to support the local film industry, a good way would be to, you know, occasionally turn up in a local film to add her pulling power to the marque.

“While this case was never about the money for me”. We refer you to her use of the phrase “economic loss”. And “I lost money”. And “pay me”.

We could go on. After all, for someone so intimately aware of the damage name-calling can do, she’s pretty quick with terms like “losers”. But seriously, can everyone involved in this just go away now?