Rebel Wilson prepares to fight Australian journalist's defamation lawsuit after twitter tirade
Hollywood star Rebel Wilson is set to fight a lawsuit filed against her by an Australian journalist, who was mistakenly called “total scum” on Twitter.
The actress has admitted she attacked the wrong person, but has hired a legal team to fight the defamation suit against her by House and Garden magazine features editor Elizabeth Wilson.
The journalist claims she was subjected to extreme abuse from the Bridesmaids star’s 2.6 million followers after her photo was shared on Twitter along with the accusation Ms Wilson had abused her grandmother.
The issue with the February 26 tweet was that the actress had called out the wrong person.
The writer who did contact Rebel’s grandmother was actually another reporter Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wilson.
The reporter has since claimed Rebel’s grandmother, 86, happily spoke with her twice about a profile piece about the actress.
Ms Wilson is now suing Rebel for damages and aggravated damages.
The Daily Telegraph reports Ms Wilson claimed in a statement filed to the NSW Supreme Court that she was called “a low, despicable and worthless person” who “repeatedly harasses people”.
She claimed Rebel referred to her in the tweets as “a dodgy tabloid journalist who writes rubbish on a weekly basis”.
It was also claimed the actress abused her with “extreme language” including: “scum”, “dodgy”, and “a…hole”.
Ms Wilson claims she never received a proper apology from Rebel, who took two days to tweet a correction.
The Pitch Perfect star is set to fight the claims, denying they amounted to defamation because “only a small proportion of her followers were based in Australia,” her defence statement reportedly read.
The actress claimed she corrected her tweets and said they were only online for no more than three hours.
On February 28 the actress issued an apology tweet which read “my apologies to the innocent ‘other’ Elizabeth Wilson,” the statement reportedly read.
