Rebel Wilson book published in the UK with Sacha Baron Cohen text redacted

Australian actress Rebel Wilson’s autobiography has been published in the UK, but a controversial section has been redacted.

The release of Rebel Rising caused a storm in the US earlier this month due to Wilson’s allegations against Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen.

The British edition of the book, published Thursday, blacked out the text that allegedly concerns it.

A note has been added to the page stating that the deletion was made “due to the particularities of the law in England and Wales”.

A spokesperson for Baron Cohen said the deletions represented a “clear victory” and reiterated his position that Wilson’s claims were “patently false.”

A spokesperson for publisher HarperCollins told BBC News: “We publish every page, but for legal reasons, in the UK edition we redact most of a page with a few other small redactions and a note explanatory.

“These sections are just a small part of a much larger story and we’re excited for readers to experience Rebel’s story when the book is released.”

A spokesperson for Baron Cohen told BBC News: “Harper Collins did not fact-check this chapter of the book before publication and took the wise but woefully late decision to remove Rebel Wilson’s defamatory claims once presented with proof that they were false.

“Printing lies is against the law in the UK and Australia; it is not a ‘peculiar’ as Ms Wilson said, but a legal principle that has existed for hundreds of years.”

The statement described the removals as a “clear victory for Sacha Baron Cohen,” adding that Wilson’s claims were “patently false” and a “shameful effort” to sell books.

Other sections of the British edition feature additional, but much shorter, redactions, with just occasional sentences omitted.

Baron Cohen has vehemently denied any impropriety, and the British comedian’s lawyers have previously said the evidence showed his allegations had “no basis in reality” and were part of a “cynical business ploy to promote his book”.

They provided video footage of a scene in question, as well as email exchanges, script excerpts and testimony from producers and crew members, which his lawyers say support his case.

In a statement earlier this month, Baron Cohen’s spokesperson said: “While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these blatantly false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including documents contemporaries, film footage and eyewitness accounts from those who were present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.”

The Daily Mail published video footage taken from one of the scenes described by Wilson. She claimed the release of the “unauthorized and misleading” images was “intimidation and a spotlight on me”.

The book as a whole has so far not received positive reviews from British critics.

“While no one enters a celebrity memoir expecting to be transported by their exquisite prose, I fear that the writing of Rebel Rising borders on distracting,” he said. she writes.

Watkins described the “clangers” in the book as “a shame, because Wilson’s life story is interesting and his voice largely convincing.”

She concluded: “Despite my gripes about the writing, there’s no doubt that it feels like a conversation piece – for Wilson fans, Rebel Rising will be a treat, like sitting across from her with a glass of wine. more than one strong drink.

He said the British edition read like a “potpourri of weak jokes and self-indulgence”.

“Rebel Rising has a directness that is sometimes not to its advantage,” Robey said. “Wilson includes old diary entries about her fluctuating weight and her determination to ‘make her own destiny’: these read like Bridget Jones if Helen Fielding had lost touch.

“Yet there is courage in brandishing them in public, which goes hand in hand with Wilson’s unfiltered persona.”