With Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen both making headlines this week, many will think back to the high profile feud the pair had last year.
The pair have got people talking for wildly different reasons, with Sacha Baron Cohen debuting his body transformation for his new role as Marvel’s Mephisto in a bizarre move.
Wilson, meanwhile, has faced a fresh lawsuit for her part in promoting a movie, with producers of the Netflix film The Deb claiming Wilson ‘deliberately undermined’ her own film.
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This came after Wilson accused the producers of the film of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards her and embezzling funds from the movie.
Wilson’s unflinching attitude to confronting members of her own films in public is well established amongst fans, particularly in her public feud with Baron Cohen.
It originally began with Wilson anonymously speaking on Instagram about an ‘a**hole celebrity’ she had spoken about in her new book who had taken out legal action to try and prevent her naming him.
She stated that she now has a ‘no a**hole policy’ due to the poor behaviour of someone on set of a film she acted in.
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Wilson said: “He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out, and you will all know the truth.”
She would go on to name Sacha Baron Cohen in a later story as the ‘a**hole’ celebrity in question.
The pair starred in the film The Brothers Grimsby together that released in 2016.
Wilson’s book, Rebel Rising, featured numerous redacted lines upon its release in the UK, clearly fearing repercussion based on the UK’s stringent laws around defamation.
The full chapter was redacted in Australia and New Zealand. In the rest of the world however, fans were able to read about how Wilson claimed that Baron Cohen had acted on the set of the film, accusing him of sexually harassing her.
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She alleged that he had repeatedly suggested she film nude scenes that were not in the script and claimed that he had mid-scene suggested he ‘stick a finger up her ar*e’.
Baron Cohen responded via his representatives in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, saying: “While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.”
Business Insider claim that Baron Cohen presented nine statements from anonymous crew members, producers, and writers, who claimed to have been present for the scene and reject Wilson’s account of events.
One producer claims the scene was in the script and was fully simulated and that at no point did he ask her to put her fingers in ‘any orifice’.
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The anonymous statement said that she was treated with the ‘utmost respect and empowerment’.
Wilson showed no signs of dropping the feud after the actor’s divorce from longtime wife Isla Fisher, saying when asked whether she felt she caused it: “I don’t feel like I’m the reason, but it might have just been his general treatment to women.”
Topics: Celebrity, Film, Rebel Wilson, Sacha Baron Cohen, TV and Film
Michael Slavin