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The Aussie actress had earlier claimed that an unnamed star had hired "a crisis PR manager and lawyers" to "threaten" her over a chapter in her book, 'Rebel Rising.' A spokesperson for Baron Cohen says, "These demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence."
By Abid Rahman
International Editor, Digital
Rebel Wilson has revealed that her Grimsby co-star Sacha Baron Cohen is the previously unnamed Hollywood “asshole” that is allegedly attempting to stop her writing about him in her upcoming memoir, Rebel Rising.
A spokesperson for Baron Cohen told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday, “While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage, and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.”
Last week, in an Instagram post, Wilson revealed that she intended to dedicate a whole chapter in her book to “a massive asshole” she had previously worked with in Hollywood, although she didn’t reveal the person’s name, the project they worked on together or provide any further details.
“When I first came to Hollywood, people were like, yeah, ‘I have a no-asshole policy, [it] means like, yeah, I don’t work with assholes.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah. I mean, that sounds sensible or logical,'” Wilson says in an Instagram video posted March 15. “But then it really sunk in [what they, the older people in the industry, meant] because I worked with a massive asshole and yeah, now I definitely have a no-assholes policy.”
Wilson added, “The chapter on said asshole is chapter 23. That guy was a massive asshole.”
Wilson’s book, Rebel Rising, is set to roll out globally in hardcover, ebook and audio April 2. The book, published by Simon & Schuster, will track Wilson’s “unconventional journey” to finding success in Hollywood after growing up in Australia.
Over the weekend, Wilson sent an update on her social media, claimed that the star in question had hired a “crisis PR manager and lawyers” to “threaten” her in order to stop her writing about him.
“I wrote about an asshole in my book. Now, said asshole is trying to threaten me,” Wilson said in a now deleted Instagram Story reported by Us Weekly. “He’s hired a crisis PR manager and lawyers. He is trying to stop press coming out about my book. But the book WILL come out, and you will all know the truth.”
On Sunday, in another Instagram Story, Wilson claimed that Baron Cohen is the actor in question, writing, “I will not be bullied or silenced by high priced lawyers or PR crisis managers. The “asshole” that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is: Sacha Baron Cohen.”
Wilson and Baron Cohen worked together on the 2016 comedy Grimsby. In the film, Wilson played the girlfriend of Baron Cohen’s character Nobby, an English football hooligan who becomes an elite spy. The film also starred Mark Strong, Penélope Cruz and Baron Cohen’s real life wife Isla Fisher.
Wilson has previously hinted at friction and disagreements over her role in Grimsby. In 2014, Australia’s The Courier-Mail newspaper reported on comments Wilson made to the radio show Kyle and Jackie O about her time working on the Louis Leterrier film. “Sacha is so outrageous,” Wilson said. “Every single day he’s like, ‘Rebel, can you just go naked in this scene?’ And I’m like, ‘No!’ Sacha and I have the same agent in America and I’m like, ‘Sacha, I’m going to call our agent Sharon and tell her how much you are harassing me.”
Wilson adds, “Every day he’s like, ‘Just go naked, it will be funny. Remember in Borat when I did that naked scene? It was hilarious.’ On the last day I thought I’d obviously won the argument, and he got a body double to do the naked scene.”
She continued, “Then in the last scene…he was like, ‘Rebel can you just stick your finger up my butt?’ And I went, ‘What do you mean Sacha? That’s not in the script.’ “And he’s like, ‘Look, I’ll just pull down my pants, you just stick your finger up my butt, it’ll be a really funny bit.'”
The Courier-Mail reports that Wilson reached a compromise with Baron Cohen on that particular Grimsby scene, with her character slapping the butt of Baron Cohen’s character.” 
This story originally posted March 24, 11:47 p.m.
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