Why hopes of a Rebel yell turn out to be more of a whimper
HOLLYWOOD star Rebel Wilson arrived in Edinburgh for the first of three UK dates to promote her memoir, Rebel Rising, trailing front page headlines in her wake.
Yet even that wasn’t enough to ensure the Australian actor’s first visit to Scotland was a sell-out, with plenty of tickets still available to buy on the night.
‘We’re going to give you the juice. We’re going to get into everything,’ promises comedian and Loose Women presenter Judi Love, who was along for the ride as host for the evening and decked out like Ms Wilson in pink in what appeared to be a nod to Barbie Girl Power solidarity.
But of course they don’t. Well, not all of it.
Least of all anything whatsoever regarding the elephant in the room that started the whole media feeding frenzy in the first place, and helped turn Rebel Rising into this year’s must-have, tell-all memoir after the book was published in the US three weeks ago.
Namely, that Sacha Baron Cohen’s behaviour on the set of 2016 comedy movie The Brothers Grimsby left her ‘feeling bullied, humiliated and compromised.’
These were allegations that were angrily and consistently denied by representatives of the Ali G and Borat star.
The alleged incident in question appears on page 216 of the book in a chapter titled Sacha Baron Cohen and Other A**holes, but not in the copy that’s included in the ticket price and handed out at the Usher Hall, where a quick flick to the chapter in question reveals that most of p216 is redacted, with other lines blacked out.
As for the rest of the evening? Well, there’s a bit of showbiz gossip plus some rags-to-riches potted biog filler.
But, if anything, it’s more of a rebel whimper than a rebel yell.