How did Rebel do it?

REBEL Wilson’s emphatic defamation victory against Bauer Media left many people asking one question: how did she do it?

Her epic takedown of what she dubbed a “toxic” culture of journalism at Bauer’s various magazines was yesterday being applauded by a raft of celebrities including Russell Crowe, Shane Warne and Lleyton Hewitt.

But still people were asking how she won.

When Woman’s Day published the May 2015 “expose” that sparked Wilson’s lawsuit it claimed to blow the lid on a string of secret details about her.

Until then had been known internationally as Rebel Wilson, a breakout Hollywood star from the Australian burbs people believed was about 29.

In fact, Woman’s Day told us, she was Melanie Bownds, she was 36, and she didn’t grow up in a ghetto. True, true and true. So how did Rebel win? Her claim was simple: she was the victim of tall poppy syndrome and a cruel campaign by Bauer to bring her down.

All Rebel had to do was convince the jury this was true.

The eight articles Wilson sued over were published in Bauer magazines Woman’s Day, Australian Women’s Weekly, OK! Magazine and New Weekly. But it was the first Woman’s Day article that dominated her case, with her claim that its imputation she was a serial liar had sullied her name in Hollywood.

When she should have been commanding at least $5 million a film, she couldn’t get a job.

She was sacked from two major Hollywood films in the fallout of that first article, and had since struggled to land any significant work. The article, and seven that followed, was malicious, aimed to hurt and humiliate her and had negatively impacted her career, she said.

The jury’s job, as Wilson’s lawyer Matthew Collins, QC, told them, was to determine what the average reader would have made of that article, and the seven that followed.

“We say . . . it’s saying that Rebel Wilson is a serial liar; she portrays herself one way, she tells these outlandish stories about the life she leads, but the truth is very different.”

There were nine matters Bauer Media and Shari Nementzik, the author of the article, accused Rebel of lying about.

But when it came to trial, Bauer argued only that she’d lied about her age, name and upbringing.

When the jury retired to deliberate on Wednesday morning they were asked to assess each of the articles, and whether they had defamed Wilson in the way she claimed.

She simply had to prove she was an honest person who had been ruined by lies.

Dr Collins said the jury had a chance to send a message to the magazine industry that its practices, including publishing articles based on the claims of a single anonymous source with an axe to grind, were unacceptable.

“We urge you to send a message to Bauer Media,” he said. “Hold them accountable.”