Aussie actress and present Hollywood darling, Rebel Wilson, has apparently done what we all do – been caught lying about how old she actually is.
Wilson, the star of such comic gems as Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect and the Stan commercials, claims to be 29; however, former school chums have come out and said far from the bogan past she advertises, Wilson is in fact 36 and went to a posh Sydney private school.
Apparently the rumours have been circulating for some time and the allegations were published recently on the women’s site Mamamia. Not only is she 36, but Wilson’s real name is Melanie Elisabeth Bownds, while former classmates have called the comic not even slightly amusing during her formative school years.
The allegations aren’t new, having been published in Woman’s Day; while there has been some conjecture about her real age in newspaper articles dating back to 2011. Online biographies and even her Wikipedia site also giving conflicting ages.
Other claims about her life including “growing up in a ghetto”, the origins of her stage name “Rebel” and even what her parents did for a living have also been contradicted.
Last night Wilson hit back via social media, although she didn’t directly refute the allegations. She posted on Twitter that she was actually a “100 year old mermaid formerly known as CC Chalice… thanks shady Australian press for your tall poppy syndrome”.
Publisher of the Mamamia site, Mia Freedman, claims Wilson’s past is a well-known secret and rejected the actor’s claims of editorial untruths.
“Every time that we’ve mentioned Rebel Wilson we’ve had lots of comments from people who went to school or college with her. They’re usually quite irate with the fact that she’s not 29 [as Wilson claims],” Freedman told Fairfax Media this morning.
Freedman was critical of Wilson who claimed she’d been overlooked for roles because she was too young.
“We kind of let it go because we didn’t want to be seen to be attacking her. What changed is some comments that she started making recently that have been very negative towards women that are her age or older. Just very subtle barbs,” she said.
Freedman added that she thought Wilson was a “brilliant actress” but by lying about her past she’d opened herself up to investigation by the media. She added that Wilson had been telling journalists she was 29 for the past six years now.
