Rebel Wilson memoir pulled from Australian shelves

The release of the comedian’s controversy-stirring memoir has been suddenly delayed in Australia, one week after she revealed receiving legal threats from former co-star Sacha Baron Cohen.

Rebel Wilson has delayed the Australian release of her book. Picture: Instagram

Publication of Australian comedian Rebel Wilson’s memoir, Rebel Rising, has been pushed back in Australia and the UK.

Publisher HarperCollins confirmed that the tell-all book, which was released on Tuesday in the US and was originally due for release in Australia on Wednesday, will not land on Australian shelves until early next month.

UK publication has also been delayed until April 25.

Fans expressed disappointment on the star’s social media platforms as pre-orders were abruptly canceled, and refunds issued without any explanation regarding the memoir’s unavailability for purchase.

Rebel Rising has already stirred controversy due to Wilson’s account of making the 2016 comedy Grimsby with the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

Sacha Baron Cohen and Rebel Wilson in a scene from Grimsby. Picture: Roadshow Pictures

In the book, Wilson, 44, writes that during filming, Baron Cohen, 52, made her uncomfortable by asking her to appear nude in the film, which she says was “in no way essential” to the plot.

She also alleges that he urged her, when they were in character and enacting a sex scene, to stick her finger up his rear end.

In the book, she wrote that she was asked to do some things that were “derogatory to women or to my size” and that some scenes made her feel like she was “being humiliated” and “sexually harassed”.

In an interview with the New York Times, Wilson said that relaying the incident with Baron Cohen was not about “cancelling” him; rather, it’s part of her story. “I’m allowed to write about what happened to me and how that made me feel,” she said.

In an Instagram story posted on Monday, Wilson named Baron Cohen as the star allegedly trying to stop the publication of her memoir.

After previously referring to, but not naming, Baron Cohen as a “massive a —hole,” Wilson alleged that Baron Cohen had hired a crisis PR team after learning she would dedicate a chapter of her memoir to exposing his behaviour.

Through a representative, Baron Cohen, who is married to the Australian actress Isla Fisher, denied Wilson’s account. “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,’” the spokesman said.

HarperCollins has not commented on whether the release of Rebel Rising was delayed in Australia due to any threat of legal action by Baron Cohen, but said that the release was pushed back to “coincide with Rebel Wilson’s press tours”.

The actor’s upcoming Australian promotional tour, An Evening with Rebel Wilson, will see her appear in conversation in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne in May.