Aussie A-lister Rebel Wilson has smiled warmly as she entered a Sydney courthouse ahead of giving evidence in her high-profile defamation battle against the star of her directorial debut.

The Pitch Perfect star is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the Australian lead actor of musical comedy The Deb.

MacInnes alleges Wilson defamed her in four social media posts that claimed she made a sexual harassment complaint and then retracted it to further her career.

Wilson smiled at the waiting media pack as she entered the Federal Court on Tuesday morning ahead of taking the witness stand to fight her co-star’s defamation claims.

Her wife, Ramona Agruma-Wilson, may no longer be required to attend court to give evidence after Wilson’s legal team made an application for her testimony to be read in her absence.

Dauid Sibtain SC noted Agruma-Wilson was in the late stages of a high-risk pregnancy, raising the issue of the stress of cross-examination.

The defamation dispute was sparked when MacInnes assisted The Deb‘s co-producer Amanda Ghost after she suffered a medical episode at Bondi Beach in September 2023.

MacInnes said she helped Ghost back to an apartment they shared with others and ended up innocently sharing a bath in their swimwear to try to warm up.

Hints about what Wilson might say in her evidence can be found in MacInnes’ sworn statements that have been tendered to the court and contain parts of Wilson’s own affidavit.

She is expected to testify about her claim that MacInnes confided in her that Ghost had asked her to have a bath and a shower together, and it made her feel uncomfortable.

MacInnes denies making the complaint. She says she later clarified to Wilson the situation had been weird but she was not uncomfortable around Ghost.

In her statement, Wilson said she overheard Ghost and MacInnes saying intimate things – often of a sexual nature – to each other. MacInnes says that is not true.

She also rejected Wilson’s account of seeing Ghost push her to go out for a drink together until MacInnes relented.

MacInnes’ barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC said the Bridesmaids star falsely portrayed herself as a whistleblower who spoke up to protect MacInnes when she was actually using the alleged complaint as leverage in a dispute with her co-producers.

Chrysanthou said that, instead of checking on the alleged victim of inappropriate behaviour, Wilson instead shared posts “slagging off” MacInnes.

“This is how this bully, apparently this saviour of women, the protector of the harassed, responds,” she told the court.

But Wilson’s lawyer Dauid Sibtain SC said in his opening address she raised her concerns with others, even though she had doubts about the veracity of the alleged complaint.

The central issue was not whether MacInnes was a victim but instead whether she complained to Wilson and then changed her story, he said.

Wilson’s case was that MacInnes retracted her story “to ensure her career as an actress and musician progressed by appeasing Ms Ghost”.

Sibtain also argued MacInnes had suffered no harm to her reputation because of the social media posts, contrary to her allegations.

Wilson will likely face questioning about MacInnes’ claim she played a role in a hack on her social media account that led to a nude photo being leaked.

The Hollywood star is also expected to be grilled on whether she was involved in creating malicious websites attacking Ghost that referenced the alleged complaint.

-AAP