Rebel Wilson’s memoir will finally be published in Australia but with an entire chapter on her account of working with Sacha Baron Cohen redacted – weeks after it was published in its entirety in the US.
HarperCollins Australia confirmed to the Guardian that “for legal reasons we have redacted one chapter in the Australian/New Zealand edition and included an explanatory note accordingly. That chapter is a very small part of a much bigger story and we’re excited for readers to know Rebel’s story when the book is released, on Wednesday 8 May.”
The chapter, titled Sacha Baron Cohen and Other Assholes, will be printed entirely as blacked out lines in Australia and New Zealand.
This means the Australian edition of Rebel Rising will be the most affected of all versions of the Australian actor’s book. Differences in defamation law around the world have determined how much of the chapter can be included.
On Wednesday, HarperCollins in the UK confirmed to the Guardian that “most of one page” would be redacted there, along with “some other small redactions” and “an explanatory note” added in.
In the highly publicised chapter, Wilson recounts her alleged experience filming the 2016 comedy film Grimsby – titled The Brothers Grimsby in the US – alongside Baron Cohen. Wilson and Baron Cohen played husband and wife in the film.
In the UK edition, published there on Thursday, Wilson describes it as “the worst experience of my professional life”, with a new line adding that her account “can’t be printed here due to peculiarities of the law in England and Wales”. Most of a page in the UK edition is blacked out, along with several more redacted lines on other pages.
Publication was initially set globally for early April, but was pushed back in the UK and Australia “to coincide with Rebel Wilson’s press tours”, HarperCollins has repeatedly claimed. At the same time, Wilson claimed that Baron Cohen was trying to stop the book’s publication, writing on Instagram: “I will not be bullied or silenced with high priced lawyer or PR crisis managers.”
The memoir was published unredacted in the US three weeks ago, and was extracted in People magazine.
When Wilson’s account of Baron Cohen’s alleged behaviour on set was first revealed, representatives for Baron Cohen rejected the claims.
“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,” they said.
On Wednesday, Baron Cohen’s representatives issued a statement about the UK edition’s redactions, saying: “Harper Collins did not fact check this chapter in the book prior to publication and took the sensible but terribly belated step of deleting Rebel Wilson’s defamatory claims once presented with evidence that they were false.
“Printing falsehoods is against the law in the UK and Australia; this is not a ‘peculiarity’ as Ms Wilson said, but a legal principle that has existed for many hundreds of years.
“This is a clear victory for Sacha Baron Cohen and confirms what we said from the beginning – that this is demonstrably false, in a shameful and failed effort to sell books.”
