Rebel Wilson's controversial memoir delayed amid legal drama
Publication of Hollywood actor Rebel Wilson’s memoir, Rebel Rising, which was originally due out on Wednesday, has been pushed back to early next month in Australia. While the book was released on Tuesday in the US, UK publication has also been delayed until April 25.
The book was originally delayed after details emerged of her account of working on Grimsby (The Brothers Grimsby in the US) with Sacha Baron Cohen. She alleges that she did not want to appear naked in the film and that Baron Cohen asked her to stick her finger up his backside during the filming of a sex scene.
Rebel Wilson’s memoir, Rebel Rising, has been delayed until May.Credit: Invision
The British comedian subsequently released a statement denying the claims, saying they were “demonstrably false” and were “directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence”.
A spokesperson for HarperCollins told this masthead that publication in Australia would be later than the UK, but would not comment on any threat of possible legal action by Baron Cohen had on the original decision to postpone it. A new date would be announced “in due course”.
The new schedule coincides with the actor’s upcoming promotional tour, An Evening with Rebel Wilson, in which she will appear in conversation in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Her British tour, also with three dates (Edinburgh, Manchester and London), begins the day before publication there, on April 24.
She is now promoting the book in the US, appearing this week at New York Town Hall, on The Kelly Clarkson Show and Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, with a live show in Santa Monica next week.
According to reports in the US, Wilson, whose films include Bridesmaids, Jojo Rabbit, and the Pitch Perfect series, writes candidly in the book about her weight (and the potential consequences for her career of losing much of it), of her sex life and coming out, her financial affairs, growing up in a dog-breeding Christian family, and of having her daughter Royce with fashion designer partner Ramona Agruma via a surrogate.
She told The New York Times that she expected Baron Cohen to deny her account of Grimsby: “I knew he wasn’t going to take it, proverbially, ‘lying down’. This is not about cancelling someone. It’s part of my story, my memoir. And I’m allowed to write about what happened to me, and how that made me feel.”
She said she was most anxious about people reading about losing her virginity at 35: “That was something that absolutely nobody knew ... And then I thought, You know what, if I’m doing a memoir and writing about everything, I’m just going to put that here as well.”
In her memoir she also writes about the early days of her career when she appeared in the SBS hit comedy Fat Pizza, claiming she was the subject of “fatphobic” jokes, which she took “right on my double chin”.
Sacha Baron Cohen has denied claims from his Grimsby co-star Rebel Wilson.Credit: AP
Paul Fenech, who created the show, responded, telling the Daily Mail: “Rebel was happy building a career playing the big girl in Hollywood, now she’s saying we did her wrong? We gave her a start, took her around the world, gave her stage training and TV and feature film opportunities. How ungrateful … I guess she’ll do or say anything to sell a book.”
In 2017 Wilson won damages of $4.7 million when she sued Bauer Publications for defamation, but after the publisher appealed the following year that amount was cut to $600,000.
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