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Lawyers warned magazine Woman's Day not to publish claims about Hollywood actress Rebel Wilson, which are now at the centre of a defamation case brought by the Australian movie star, a Melbourne court has been told.
The 37-year-old actress and comedian broke down as she gave evidence for a second day about an "orchestrated campaign" which she claims damaged her reputation and cost her movie roles.
"When I think about every single day since I was an adult working for something, and then this group of people who don't know me want to rip me to shreds on information they know is false," she told the jury.
"To write these kinds of lies about somebody to ruin their reputation when they've worked so hard."
Wilson is suing Bauer Media, the publisher of Woman's Day and several other magazines, after it published eight articles in 2015 claiming she had embellished her backstory and lied about her age and real name.
The star of the Pitch Perfect movie franchise was taken through emails between a journalist at Woman's Day and the anonymous source in the first of the articles, who Wilson believes is a disgruntled former classmate.
The anonymous source had commented on a story on the magazine's website in 2012, claiming she had gone to high school with the actress and stating "what a lier [sic] she has become!!".
Wilson said magazines such as Woman's Day were known for wanting to publish exposés on celebrities because they sold more copies than "puff pieces".
"They're hungry at this point to write anything at all negative about me," she told the court.
"I don't have a drug past, some weird sex tape … there's really nothing negative to say about me.
"Here's one little comment on a story and they're kind of like vultures swooping in to contact this person."
Emails tendered to the court revealed the source asked for "maximum payment" before agreeing on a fee of several thousand dollars.
But the article was initially not published after Woman's Day received legal advice in 2013 that the information was "too problematic".
An email from Woman's Day journalist Shari Nementzik to the source revealed their research suggested Wilson had in fact disclosed her true name and age.
"If she hasn't been lying as such it'll be hard to do the story," she wrote to the source.
"We just can't risk being sued."
But two years later, the magazine published the story to coincide with the release of Pitch Perfect 2, in which Wilson had a starring role, the court was told.
"They did risk it two years later and here I am now," Wilson told the jury.
"If [Nementzik] did about five minutes' research on the internet she could have worked out that there are problems with the story."
The court was told that an estimated 1.5 million people read the Woman's Day article.
Wilson told the court she had hoped the story would be contained to Australia, but a day after it was published, it was being discussed on American television and radio.
"I woke up the next morning and I had to go to work in New York and suddenly it was everywhere," she told the court.
"They were calling me a serial liar.
"It was kind of like, 'Oh you'll never believe this, Rebel Wilson is actually 36 … she lied about everything and made up this whole story. What a scandal.'
"I guess I was hoping an article in an Australian magazine wouldn't have that great an effect."
Bauer Media denies the articles were defamatory.
Wilson's evidence is expected to take three days.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, arts-and-entertainment, film-movies, print-media, information-and-communication, melbourne-3000, vic, united-states
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