Rebel Wilson’s UK Version of Her Memoir Has Sacha Baron Cohen Text Redacted

Upon the UK release of Rebel Wilson's memoir, Rebel Rising, the Pitch Perfect star's scathing chapter about her former co-star, Sacha Baron Cohen, has been blacked out. Wilson is from Austalia, While Baron Cohen is a UK native.

As we've been reporting, Wilson's memoir has been causing a media frenzy ever since she made allegations about the behavior of the Borat star from their time on set together in the 2016 comedy The Brothers Grimsby. In the R-rated comedy, Wilson plays Dawn, the girlfriend of Cohen’s dimwitted Kyle Alan “Nobby” Butcher, who assumes the role of an MI6 operative after he attempts to reconnect with his estranged brother Sebastian Graves (Mark Strong). The film also stars Penélope Cruz, Sam Hazeldine and Cohen’s now ex-wife Isla Fisher.

Rebel's memoir accuses Baron Cohen of wildly inappropriate behavior on the set of the film. Wilson claimed that he asked her to “stick your finger up my butt.” That wasn’t in the script, as Wilson told her co-star. He allegedly replied, “Look, I’ll just pull down my pants, you just stick your finger up my butt, it’ll be a really funny bit.” Wilson noted in her memoir that she was “now scared. I wanted to get out of there, so I finally compromised: I slapped him on the a– and improvised a few lines as the character.”

Responding to Rebel's excerpt about the "massive a-hole," a spokesperson for Baron Cohen said in a statement to the New York Post: “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.”

In the British edition of the book, which hit bookstores on Thursday (April 25), the part about Baron Cohen has been blacked out from the text. Per BBC News, a note has been added to the page saying the redaction has been made "due to the peculiarities of the law in England and Wales."

A spokesperson for Baron Cohen said the redactions represented a "clear victory" and reiterated his previous position that Wilson's claims were "demonstrably false" and a "cynical commercial ploy to promote her book." Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Harper Collins told BBC that they will be republishing "every page, but for legal reasons, in the UK edition, we are redacting most of one page with some other small redactions and an explanatory note." The publishing house spokesperson added that those sections are a "very small part of a much bigger story."

Baron Cohen said that the UK publishers of her book didn't fact-check the chapter about the actor prior to publication, so they are taking a "terribly belated step of deleting Rebel Wilson’s defamatory claims once presented with evidence that they were false," which is illegal in the UK and Australia.

Other sections of the British edition of Rebel Rising feature redactions but are much shorter than the one about Baron Cohen. It has been reported that the entire chapter relating to Baron Cohen has been redacted in Australia and New Zealand, making the version released in those countries the most censored of any edition of the book.

Baron Cohen's lawyers have apparently supplied video footage of one scene in question, email exchanges, script excerpts, and testimony from producers and crew members, which his lawyers say back up his case.

The Daily Mail published outtake video footage from one of the scenes Wilson described. She claimed the release of the "unauthorized and misleading" footage was "bullying and gaslighting me."

Rebel is currently in the UK talking about her book but has not responded to the redacted texts.

With seemingly every celebrity out with a memoir these days, there aren't that many in the world of pop music that have released memoirs. Though we thoroughly enjoyed actress Megan Fox's series of poems in Pretty Boys Are Poisonous, it isn't technically a memoir. Her first book was "written in an attempt to excise the illness that had taken root in me because of my silence. I’ve spent my entire life keeping the secrets of men, my body aches from carrying the weight of their sins."

Musicians connect with their fans through lyrics, giving the general public insight into their personal lives. When it comes to writing a book, however, music artists reveal things that are usually such private part of their upbringing and reveal their raw feelings. The world's most famous musicians have released memoirs over the years.

Huge names in the industry like Elton John, Dave Grohl, Bob Dylan, and Nina Simone have released memoirs of their extraordinary life. Many pop stars and celebrities  have released more harrowing stories about their childhoods or terrifying tales from the industry.

For example, Alicia Keys' 2020 memoir, More Myself: A Journey, the award-winning singer-songwriter wrote about her early childhood in Harlem and Hell's Kitchen. In the "If I Ain't Got You" singer's memoir, she explored what it means to be a woman in the public eye and the journey she's been on to discover her true self away from the spotlight.

From being famous, she discussed the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships and the oppressive expectations of female perfection. Since Alicia rose to fame, she has struggled for years not fully recognizing or honoring her own worth. After withholding parts of herself for so long, she navigated her true identity throughout the book.

Carey's 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, is told in four parts, "woven together to reveal a journey that is ongoing." The four parts of the award-winning singer's memoir are: Wayward Child, Sing. Sing., All That Glitters, and Emancipation. Her book takes fans through the triumphs and traumas behind the scenes of her private life, from her difficult childhood growing up in Long Island, New York, to her allegedly abusive marriage to music executive Tommy Mottola. She also offers readers a glimpse of her songwriting process while exploring her identity as a biracial woman in the music industry.

Jessica Simpson's 2020 memoir, Open Book, discusses the "I Wanna Love You Forever" singer's "hard times" she shared with fans by using journal entries she kept since she was 15 years old. While trying to make it in the industry at a young age, she discusses how she messed up her Mickey Mouse Club audition, to competing with pop superstars Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera in the charts. Elsewhere in the memoir, she discussed her struggle with alcoholism and failed marriage to 98 Degrees' Nick Lachey, as well as her romances with John Mayer and Johnny Knoxville.

Following the end of Britney Spears' 13-year conservatorship, fans were eagerly waiting to hear the Princess of Pop's story. In 2023's The Woman in Me, Spears explores her rise to fame, her journey with motherhood, and her experiences breaking free from the conservatorship. As we [inlink id="britney-spears-memoir-reveals-abortion-with-justin-timberlake" text="steadily reported"] on the details of her memoir, the "Toxic" singer revealed that in 2000, she and then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake faced a challenging decision regarding a pregnancy. Ultimately, they opted for an abortion, which continued to have a lasting impact on Spears.

The Hilton heiress released her Paris: The Memoir in 2023. The "Stars Are Blind" singer talks about her self-proclaimed “superpower” of ADHD and a hidden history that traumatized and defined her. Hilton disclosed that her childhood was shattered by two years of strip searches, isolation, beatings, restraint, and brainwashing within the now infamous "troubled teen industry." As we [inlink id="paris-hilton-supports-youth-abuse-survivors-in-newly-signed-utah-bill" text="reported"], the socialite attended Provo Canyon School, where she faced emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. She also details the [inlink id="paris-hilton-on-her-sex-tape-trauma" text="traumatic story"] behind her infamous sex tape with ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon in 2003, when she was 18 years old at the time.

Elton John's Me is about his extraordinary life, filled with "sex, drugs, and rock & roll." Joking aside, Sir Elton John's 2019 memoir chronicles the musician's highs and lows in life, diving into music and the most important people in his life. John gets candid about his childhood, how he broke into the music industry, and how he overcame a decade-long drug addiction. From his friendships with fellow musicians like Freddie Mercury and John Lennon to his marriage to David Furnish, John's memoir chronicles the life of one of the world's most noted singers.