Rebel Wilson: the “exit” of a gossip column of the actress condemned by the Australian Press Council | Ents & Arts News



A gossip column threatening to ‘take out’ actress Rebel Wilson was ‘likely to cause substantial offense and distress’, the Australian Press Council has found.

Earlier this month, the australian star called Sydney Morning Herald reporter Andrew Hornery’s attempt to reveal his relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma “dirty behaviour”.

His Private Sydney column, titled Rebel Starts Spreading The News, was published in June.

While the reporter had hoped to break Wilson’s same-sex relationship story, he was instead forced to comment on his own announcement after the The bridesmaids star revealed the news on Instagramthe day before the publication of his column.

Along with a photo of her and Agruma together, Wilson announced her relationship to the world, writing, “I thought I was looking for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess #loveislove.”

Hornery’s column the next day described how Wilson “ignored” his email requests for comment and instead chose to “watch” it.

Her column sparked a global backlash from celebrities and LGBT charities, criticizing her attempt to get the actress out.

This column was later deleted and replaced with an apology from Hornery, in which he stated he had “mishandled” the storyand figured out why his email to Wilson “was taken as a threat.”

Admitting the resulting tone of his column was “off”, he said it was “not the paper’s business to ‘take out’ people”, adding that “that’s not what we had intend to do”. He also said that as a gay man he was “well aware of the deep pain of discrimination”.

In his apology, he included the contents of his original email to Wilson’s management team, telling them he had “several sources” confirming the status of his relationship and that he had “enough details to be published”. He had given her two days to respond.

He said it was his deadline, rather than an ultimatum.

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The Australian Press Council, which is the main body responsible for responding to complaints about Australian newspapers, magazines and media, published its decision on the Herald’s website on Saturday.

The media watchdog wrote: “The tenor of the publication’s communications with Ms Wilson regarding a deeply personal matter, and the associated commentary on a matter which had no apparent connection to her public activities, intruded on her expectations. reasonable in terms of privacy.

“The council considers that, taken collectively, the article’s reference to celebrity same-sex couples ‘dating’, its reference to giving Ms Wilson two days to respond to reports regarding her relationship, and its direct criticism of her for not responding, were likely to cause substantial offense and distress.”

They found that there was insufficient public interest to justify the intrusion and that the newspaper had breached two of the council’s general principles by publishing the column.

Earlier this month, Wilson told the Australian newspaper that the ‘rush’ to publicly reveal the news of their relationship meant they had yet to tell some family members they were a couple.

Wilson is set to play her first dramatic role in the independent film The Almond And The Seahorse, which hits UK cinemas later this year.

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