The last month or so has seen a very public spat between Australian actress Rebel Wilson and Sacha Baron Cohen.
In her newly-published memoir 'Rebel Rising', the 'Pitch Perfect' star claimed that she had been mistreated by the 'Borat' actor on the set of the 2016 film 'The Brothers Grimsby', referring to him as 'a massive asshole' as she drummed up publicity for the book.
Wilson alleged that Baron Cohen had harrassed her and made lewd suggestions to her on the film's set, including encouraging her to "stick [her] finger up [his] butt' to make a scene funnier, and pressuring her to "go naked" as he had in 'Borat'.
However, Baron Cohen strongly refuted the allegations, claiming that there was video and eyewitness evidence that proved otherwise.
Now, it seems that Baron Cohen has emerged somewhat victorious from the spat, as the passages detailing his alleged harrassment of Wilson have been redacted from both the UK publication of 'Rebel Rising', as well as the Australian and New Zealand version; the latter will be published with black strips covering the text in the affected chapter.
"Harper Collins did not fact check this chapter in the book prior to publication and took the sensible but terribly belated step of deleting Rebel Wilson’s defamatory claims once presented with evidence that they were false," his reps said in a statement. "Printing falsehoods is against the law in the UK and Australia; this is not a ‘peculiarity’ as Ms Wilson said, but a legal principle that has existed for many hundreds of years.
"This is a clear victory for Sacha Baron Cohen and confirms what we said from the beginning – that this is demonstrably false, in a shameful and failed effort to sell books."
It hasn't been a good month for Baron Cohen; earlier this month, it was announced that he and Isla Fisher, his wife of 13 years, are going their separate ways.
