Australian Hollywood actress Rebel Wilson has slammed her critics who say she doesn’t deserve a record $4.5 million defamation payout.
The 37-year-old thespian made history in September when Victorian Supreme Court justice John Dixon awarded her damages against Bauer Media, the German publisher of Woman’s Day, Australian Women’s Weekly, OK! and NW magazine.
The judge found eight articles published in May 2015 had defamed her by claiming the Pitch Perfect star was a serial liar.
Rebel Wilson has slammed critics who want her record $4.5 million defamation payout reduced – considering the money will be going to charity
Wilson, whose defamation payout is four times the size of the previous defamation payout record in Australia, has hit back at her critics who say the amount awarded in her favour is excessive.
‘They’re whining about the amount they’re going to have to pay me and trying to get it reduced, which is really gross considering that I’m giving the money to charity,’ she told the Seven Network’s Sunday Night program.
An all-female jury in June reached a unanimous verdict that Woman’s Day, Australian Women’s Weekly, OK! and NW magazine publisher defamed her in eight articles published in May 2015.
The articles claimed she was a serial liar about her real name, age and childhood so she could make it in Hollywood.
Rebel Wilson (pictured in June when an all-female jury concluded Bauer Media had defamed her) has spoken out against critics of her record defamation payout
Wilson described that verdict in Melbourne as ‘awesome’.
‘It was so, so satisfying that the jury voted with me. It was such an overwhelming, comprehensive victory that it was just amazing,’ she said.
‘I’ve proved very publicly that what I was saying was the truth and that they wrote a bunch of lies, and that I was maliciously defamed.
‘So it was very, very satisfying to win.’
Wilson won $650,000 in general damages and $3,917,472 in special damages for opportunities in movie roles she lost because of the articles.
Rebel Wilson (pictured in June) said her win taught her she’s more than a ‘silly comedian’
‘This has definitely been a long and very hard fight. I felt that I had to take a stand,’ she said outside court in June. ‘I had to stand up to a bully,’ she said in June during a break in the trial.
Justice Dixon had said a substantial amount was required to ‘vindicate’ Wilson after her reputation as an ‘actress of integrity was wrongly damaged’.
The publisher acted in an ‘orchestrated’ fashion to sell more magazines and increase circulation, the judge said.
The actress had sought $5.893 million in special damages and $1.2 million in general damages, bringing the total claim to $7.093 million.
Bauer Media branded the special damages claim ‘extraordinarily large’ and made on the ‘most tenuous of bases’.
Wilson told the Seven Network her legal victory had taught her she was ‘much more than a silly comedian’.