This, undoubtedly, is a Hollywood row that could get very ugly indeed. In one corner, is Rebel Wilson, one of the industry’s most outspoken actresses. A self-portrayed champion of women, she’s seemingly laser-focused on ‘calling out’ inappropriate behaviour in her industry, no matter how well known the accused may be.

Indeed, earlier this year, the 44-year-old made controversial claims in her autobiography that she was sexually harassed by actor Sacha Baron Cohen – allegations he vehemently denied.

ALLEGATIONS: Rebel Wilson and, left, with Sacha Baron Cohen whom she accused

The furore resulted in many column inches devoted to Wilson’s book. But, it appears, the tables have now turned – and her on-set behaviour is under scrutiny.

Last week, three producers who worked with Wilson on her latest film, in which she made her directorial debut, have accused her of being a ‘malicious bully’.

Amanda Ghost, co-producer of The Deb, says that Rebel Wilson is ‘a bully with a history of making up malicious lies to hide her own lack of professionalism’

Wilson, they say, has a history of spreading lies ‘to hide her own lack of professionalism’.

They say she bullied staff, tried to seize writing credits from an up-and-coming screenwriter, and spread a rumour about one of her accusers being a sexual predator, knowing it was fictitious.

It gets worse. The trio claim Wilson included false allegations about Baron Cohen’s alleged inappropriate behaviour on the set of another film to promote the sale of her book. ‘She hypocritically played the victim in order to elicit public sympathy in the hope that it would advance her professional self-interest,’ the trio say.

Their accusations are laid bare in a thunderous lawsuit brought by the trio against Wilson. In full, it makes painful, excoriating reading, a portrait so damning that you can’t help but think bigwigs in the film industry will pause for thought before working with Wilson again.

So who are the authors behind such a withering indictment? Step forward Amanda Ghost, a 50-year-old North Londoner and an astonishingly successful figure in the world of music and film. A three-time Ivor Novello Award winner, a Golden Globe nominee and a three-time Grammy nominee, Ghost co-wrote You’re Beautiful with James Blunt, along with songs for Beyonce and Shakira.

Baron Cohen with his ex-wife Isla Fisher – there are claims that Wilson made false allegations about his inappropriate behaviour on the set of another film to promote the sale of her book

Yet Ghost comes from a very unstarry background: growing up in a working-class household in Enfield, with her father from Trinidad and mother from Gibraltar, she’s spoken about her experience of intense racism as a youngster.

One of her neighbours hung white-power National Front posters from his home, dog mess was pushed through the family’s letterbox, people spat at her on buses and told her to ‘go home’.

Through graft and gumption, she rose to the top: a former president at Sony Music for their Epic Records imprint, she is now the CEO of film company, AI Film, and a sister company, Unigram, which she founded with her husband, Gregor Cameron.

Their business partner is one of the most powerful men in music: Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the Ukrainian-born billionaire who owns most of Warner Music Group.

Ghost, her husband and their colleague, Vince Holden – who has had a 30-year career financing independent films and television – were working as producers with Wilson on a new Australian musical, The Deb, about two teenagers who make their mark on their town’s annual debutante ball.

Compared to 1994 Aussie hit Muriel’s Wedding, it is tipped for success and is supposed to debut at the Toronto Film Festival next month – until a blazing row broke out.

Wilson claimed that the British producers embezzled hundreds of thousands of pounds from the film’s budget, that Ghost sexually harassed an actress in the film and the producers were trying to stop the premiere out of sheer spite.

Last week Wilson told her 11million Instagram followers: ‘If the movie doesn’t play at Toronto, it’s because of these absolute f***wits.’ However the trio have issued an almighty retort to Wilson’s accusations in the form of a scorching defamation suit.

Boy George with his friend Amanda Ghost – he mounted an impassioned defence of her against Wilson. In a self-made video, he said: ‘I know that these things [Wilson’s claims] aren’t true and I just can’t sit here and listen to this’

They have engaged attorney Camille Vasquez, who successfully represented Johnny Depp in his 2022 trial against former wife Amber Heard, and are seeking punitive and exemplary damages ‘in the maximum amounts provided by law’ for damage to their reputations, emotional suffering and distress, and compensation for lost opportunities caused by the negative publicity associated with Wilson’s allegations.

Clearly, then, Ghost is not taking this lying down. But so impressive is her history, it would have been surprising if she had let Wilson’s allegations go.

Ghost co-wrote You’re Beautiful with James Blunt – but in his 2023 memoir, the singer said that the film producer could take credit for only 10 per cent of the lyrics

Take when Blunt wrote in his 2023 memoir that Ghost could take credit for only 10 per cent of You’re Beautiful’s lyrics. She swiftly retorted with sarcasm: ‘I hope… that James proves himself as one of the most important novelists of his generation.’

Part of her strong character, Ghost says, came from her father: an immigrant who became a driving instructor, and also worked in construction, owned shops and founded a textile company. She said he hard-baked a strength, drive and entrepreneurial will into her and her two older sisters.

She told an interviewer two years ago: ‘My father always said to me, you’ve got to work twice as hard. Once because you’re a woman, twice because you’re brown.’ As well as racist abuse, she also says she experienced ‘terrible institutionalised racism’ at her school which was almost all-white. ‘Only people who look like me and grew up where I grew up will understand it,’ she says. ‘The idea of success to me was always about getting away from where I came from, having enough money so I didn’t have to worry about food or where I had to live.’

When accused of unpredictability and ‘a penchant for profanity’ by a US journalist in 2010 – something Ghost fiercely rejected – she again hit back with a sucker-punch of a comment: ‘I am so fed up of seeing women labelled aggressive and bossy and domineering and abrasive, and men who have those same qualities get promoted to be CEOs of music divisions globally. I’ve had enough of it and I want to see it change.’

She then told her interviewer how she had heard that a male record executive was complaining that he ‘can’t bear Amanda Ghost, she’s so aggressive’. ‘And I’m like, yeah but if I was a man you’d give me a raise. Being aggressive is standing up for yourself and not lying on the floor and letting someone kick you in the face. Especially if you’re a brown woman.’

Last month Boy George, a friend for many years, mounted an equally impassioned defence of her against Wilson. In a self-made video, he said: ‘I know that these things [Wilson’s claims] aren’t true and I just can’t sit here and listen to this.

‘I met Amanda when she was 17 years old, she was working in a club, and I’ve watched her rise to become [a] president [at] Sony Music to running a film company and she is a strong powerful woman. Sometimes other strong powerful women don’t like it when they see themselves.’

The implication from George, then, seems clear: Wilson may have been threatened by Ghost’s success. So what, then, is the truth behind this showbiz fallout?

We know the three British producers were brought on board in February 2023 to co-produce The Deb, adapted from a stage play of the same name by Australian Hannah Reilly, the recipient of a scholarship award created by Wilson.

The score, described as ‘joyful pop,’ was written by Australian musician Megan Washington.

The film centres on socially inept country bumpkin teenager Taylah and her hyper-woke city cousin Maeve who find themselves humiliated in the rural Australian town of Dunburn and join forces to attend the annual debutante ball as a way of finding redemption.

Although Wilson’s production company Camp Sugar Productions had previously acquired the rights to The Deb script, the actress did not invest her own money into the project and needed help. Wilson’s life had certainly been eventful up until this point.

After making her name as Fat Amy in the Pitch Perfect films, she has claimed her agents preferred her not to lose weight because they earned more money when she was the ‘fat, funny girl’.

A sufferer of polycystic ovary syndrome, she decided to lose weight – at her peak she weighed 225 lbs (16 stone) – when she saw a doctor about having a baby. She also revealed she lost her virginity aged 35 to a man and had a relationship with a female professional tennis player, before having a daughter Royce, 19 months, via surrogacy. She is now engaged to fashion and jewellery designer Ramona Agruma.

In their lawsuit, Ghost, Cameron and Holden say they ‘took a chance’ on the actress, a novice when it comes to directing, and expected her to behave professionally. Instead, they claim, Wilson refused to ­collaborate, absconded from the film set for months at a time, behaved unprofessionally and ‘[invented] problems to obfuscate her own failures’.

Matters came to a head when Wilson attempted to appropriate writing credits from Reilly, her own scholarship recipient, and fought for credit for the film’s music. ‘Rebel’s goal was… to overshadow young, upcoming artists who truly deserved the credit,’ the producers claim. Wilson and her protegee eventually took the matter of the screenplay to the Australian Writer’s Guild who said Reilly should get the credit. Wilson was merely given an ‘additional writing’ acknowledgment.

When Wilson did not get her way, the lawsuit claims, she revived a fictitious story about Ghost harassing one of the actresses. ‘She created out of whole cloth a false and malicious tale regarding an innocent interaction between Ms Ghost and a lead actress on set,’ the lawsuit alleges.

‘According to Rebel, Ms Ghost forced the actress to stay at her penthouse apartment and engaged in inappropriate behaviour that made the actress feel uncomfortable. In truth, the penthouse apartment was rented for the purpose of housing members of the cast and crew of the film and contained private quarters for each resident. The actress in question… denied any claims.’

According to the lawsuit, Wilson claimed Ghost and Cameron embezzled $A900,000 (£458,000) of the film’s eventual $22 million (£11.2 million) budget. Wilson, they said, knew both statements were false. ‘She simply made them up with actual malice,’ the lawsuit contends.

Despite the bad relations, the film was largely completed this summer and was selected to premiere at the prestigious closing spot at the Toronto Film Festival.

The producers’ plan always was to show the film but they were concerned numerous credit and licensing disputes instigated by Wilson would make it difficult to market, the lawsuit claims. Wilson, they say, attempted to force the issue by ‘spreading malicious and baseless lies’ about the producers on her Instagram account.

Following the legal action, Wilson hit back with a fiery statement. Calling the trio ‘vile and disgusting,’ she said: ‘Clearly these recent press articles and constant retaliations against me for speaking the truth on my small Australian movie are false.’ She added on Instagram: ‘So good luck f***wit producers trying to prove anything other than I’m a professional who did an amazing job.’

She has engaged litigator Bryan Freedman, described as ‘someone who brings an arsenal to a knife fight’, to tackle the allegations against her. In a statement, Freedman would say only that ‘the number of people who back up Rebel’s experience is staggering.’

No date has been given for a trial, but a case management hearing is scheduled in Los Angeles on November 26.

So what will happen when these two ‘strong, powerful women’ go head to head? Perhaps Ghost’s take on success and authenticity gives an indication. ‘Success to me is being able to be artistically pure in my endeavours,’ she told an interviewer. ‘As long as I continue doing that, I’ll never fail.’