Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen’s public feud escalates
After simmering for eight years, this celeb feud has exploded in the past week - and a footage leak just made things a whole lot worse.
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Rebel Wilson has accused Sacha Baron Cohen of leaking footage from their 2016 film The Brothers Grimsby which appeared to contradict some of the claims she made against him in her upcoming memoir.
In a recently published excerpt from her memoir Rebel Rising, the actress accused Cohen of sexually harassing her by asking her to stick a finger up his butt for a scene, which she outrightly refused.
But in a video published by The Daily Mail, the actress appears to be on board with the scene.
The video showed Wilson and Cohen blocking out the scene, with Wilson telling him, “I’ll do a slap [of your butt] and I’ll do a — going down the crack.”
Cohen can then be heard replying, “It’s almost as if you’re going to ram your fingers inside,” to which Wilson replies, “Yeah.”
Producers also alleged to Daily Mail that Wilson was “fully engaged” and “confidently kissing” during the scene.
But Wilson claimed the video was “edited” and shared out of context.
“It is an a**hole move to release footage of one part of that disgusting episode while leaving out everything that preceded it including my horrified refusal to stick my finger up SBC’s butt,” she said in a statement to Daily Mail.
She continued, “This could not have possibly been for the film as the director Louis Leterrier was not even present. What this edited video shows is what I had to do in order to get out of the room, as written in Rebel Rising. Releasing unauthorised and misleading behind the scenes video without my approval is SBC’s latest way of bullying and gaslighting me.”
Wilson devoted an entire chapter of her book to explaining her time working with Cohen. When promoting the memoir, the Pitch Perfect actress noted that he was the reason she has “a ‘no a**holes’ policy” with the people she works with.
A spokesperson for Cohen denied the claims in a statement to Decider.
“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.
Wilson also accused Cohen of hiring a PR manager and lawyers to “stop press coming out” about her new book, which is released next week.
This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission.
Originally published as Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen’s public feud escalates
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