Ghost v. Wilson update - Ghost request for international judicial assistance to subpoena UK and Australian witnesses
Now that full discovery is proceeding in Amanda Ghost's defamation lawsuit against Rebel Wilson, Melissa Nathan, and TAG (after Wilson/Nathan/TAG withdrew their latest anti-SLAPP motion), Ghost has filed a motion to issue letters rogatory -- i.e., requests to foreign governments for service of process -- that will allow her to serve UK and Australian witnesses whose testimony and documents are needed to support her case.
The motion is necessary because these witnesses are beyond the reach of domestic U.S. subpoena power, so they need to be served via the Hague Convention, which created a mechanism for international cooperation for that purpose.
The specific witnesses whom Ghost hopes to serve are:
- Greer Simpkin, a local Australian producer on The Deb
- David Jowsey, another local producer
- Matt Reeder, a co-producer
- Tiare Tomaszewski, another producer
- Noni Roy, an assistant director
- Sue Bownds, Rebel Wilson's mother and a director of Camp Sugar, her company
- Lynne O'Brien, head of makeup on The Deb
- Pia Ashcroft, a senior film employee
- Charles Collier and Angharad Wood, Wilson's former UK-based agents
Most of these names will be familiar to people who followed the Charlotte MacInnes v. Rebel Wilson defamation trial in Australia a couple months ago, as most of them testified in that trial. (MacInnes is the actress whom Wilson claimed had complained about inappropriate behavior by Ghost; she sued Wilson over that claim, with a ruling still pending.) You can find most of their affidavits here: https://www.fedcourt.gov.au/services/access-to-files-and-transcripts/online-files/macinnes-v-wilson
Notably, these witnesses' testimony/documents will mainly be relevant to Ghost's original defamation complaint, which revolves around Wilson's claims in an Instagram video and a publicly-circulated demand letter from Bryan Freedman that Ghost and her fellow producers behaved inappropriately toward MacInnes and embezzled funds from the film.
Presumably discovery is also proceeding on Ghost's September 2025 cross-complaint, which focuses on "smear websites" that accused her of sex trafficking. This discovery will involve testimony/documents from Nathan, Freedman, Jed Wallace, and various current or former TAG employees, but they are all U.S.-based so letters rogatory won't be necessary for them. We won't find out how discovery is going on that front unless and until motions related to that discovery are filed on the docket.
The motion for international judicial assistance is set to be heard on July 28. Trial in Ghost v. Wilson is currently scheduled for October.