Rebel Wilson ordered to repay $4.1 million to Bauer
Actress Rebel Wilson has been ordered to repay Bauer Media $4.1 million of the damages previously awarded to her along with interest and the bulk of the publisher’s appeal costs, the Victorian Court of Appeal ruled this afternoon.
The case, which saw Wilson awarded $4.5m for a series of defamatory stories published in 2015, took a turn against the US based actress two weeks ago when the court slashed the damages award to $600,000.
Wilson had not disputed returning the damages to Bauer but had argued about the timing and calculation of interest payments.
Justices Tate, Beech and Ashley of the Victorian Supreme Court found Bauer was entitled to the interest charged from October 3, 2017, the date the publisher had paid Wilson the higher amount, at an interest rate of 2% charged to 27 June.
The court ruled Wilson owed Bauer interest charges of $60,316.45, bringing the total to $4,183,071.45. She was also ordered to pay 80% of Bauer’s appeal costs.
In awarding the appeal costs the judges ruled that, despite the court agreeing Bauer seriously defamed Wilson, the publisher was entitled to receiving the costs for the parts of the proceedings where it was successful.
Tough luck, Mel. Now instead of that money going to fund crappy Hollywood movies that no one watches, it will now go to funding crappy magazines that no one reads.
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Does this mean that all the people who have lost their jobs at Bauer will get them back?
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I agree that this now feeds back into crappy magazine production, not just because of the cash, but because of the overturned ruling too. This surely sends a terrible message?
However, I don’t agree that ‘no one reads’ them. If that were true, they wouldn’t be financially viable. The fact that they are financially viable is thanks to the gullibility of the market to the crap headlines – which are now ‘safer’ to produce thanks to this ‘crap ruling’.
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Ever see people reading them or buying them?
The only reason the industry is still somewhat viable is because of all the other industries that rely on the publishers to provide them with their livelihoods…whether it be Nielsen, Roy Morgan, News Agents, Ad agencies, etc.
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I’m sure those “I eat anything and I’m proud of it” Uber Eats adds are going to be great for her career. Kungfu Panda 5 here she comes!
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