Today in Media Files, Rebel Wilson has been awarded $4.5 million in damages in her defamation case against Bauer Media, and Newcastle’s independent Sunday newspaper has closed after just three months in publication.

Rebel Wilson wins record defamation payout. Actor Rebel Wilson has this morning been awarded a staggering $4.5 million in damages, after suing Bauer Media over a series of articles published in Woman’s Day that suggested she was a liar. A Victorian Supreme Court jury found in June that Wilson had been defamed in the articles. The damages are the highest ever awarded in Australia. Wilson argued that she’d been sacked from two films over the articles and that she hadn’t been able to land any further work. She has just filmed a romantic comedy, co-starring with Liam Hemsworth, and features in Pitch Perfect 3, which is yet to be released. The ABC reports that Justice John Dixon said the defamation was “unprecedented in this country”:

“At trial and in the full media glare, Bauer Media tried to characterise its article as true, or as trivial, or as not likely to be taken seriously. Substantial vindication can only be achieved by an award of damages that underscores that Ms Wilson’s reputation as an actress of integrity was wrongly damaged in a manner that affected her marketability in a huge worldwide marketplace.”

Newcastle paper a failed experiment. Newcastle Sunday has folded after just three months. Managing directors Elwyn and Elizabeth Lang put out a statement yesterday saying the paper would close immediately:

“A combination of issues have led to this decision, most notably a lack of paper sales, due somewhat to the difficulty with distribution, the fact that not enough Newcastle people purchased what we thought was a great Sunday read, and thus the lack of profitability.”

Elwyn Lang started the paper in July as an independent Sunday newspaper for the northern NSW city and surrounding region — Fairfax’s Newcastle Herald prints Monday to Saturday.

Maurice Newman’s grab-bag of crazy. Mauuuuuuuuurice! What can we say? After months of boring, competent pfaff on banking etc, Maurice Newman, the space cowboy, couldn’t hold it in any longer! He’s given us a piece that is to op-ed what Mr Creosote is to fine dining. What’s bizarre about it — or in the top three of things bizarre about it — is that it begins with a definition of conspiracy-theory politics, which it then accepts as a program:
“According to political scientist Michael Barkun, conspiracy theories rely on the view that the universe is governed by design, and embody three principles: nothing happens by accident, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected.

“Divine order or otherwise, you don’t need a tinfoil hat to know the recent co-ordinated assaults on Judeo-Christian culture and history are deliberate.”

No, you can leave your tinfoil hat off as Newman connects the following things: gender-neutral toilets, the pill, divorce, neo-Marxism, single families, rising crime, the alleged criminalisation of gender pronouns in Canada, whiteness studies, the removal of statues of Cecil Rhodes at Oxford, the removal of Confederate statues, the views of anti-Semitic US commentator Patrick Buchanan, and, of course, Gramsci. “Some call this progress,” Maurice intones. We call it a greatest hits package. It’s like the right-wing crackpot version of the ABBA Gold album, not a dud track in the mix.

Connoisseurs of Mauuuurice’s batty grasp on Marxism will not be disappointed. The man who approvingly quoted C. Wright Mills on the “power elite” once again miscredits Gramsci with the phrase “the long march through the institutions” (it was first used 30 years after Gramsci’s death), but he’s done that at least twice before.

He’s got a new one now:

“They [the left Illuminati] employ the Marxist technique of ‘repressive tolerance’, which often involves violent opposition to contrary views.’

Yeah, nah. “Repressive tolerance” is a concept from Herbert Marcuse, describing the way in which liberal societies use an “open” public sphere as a release valve for dissent, to frustrate change. It’s the exact opposite of the sort of thing Maurice appears to be trying to describe.

Ah, Maurice. You’re like the dim kid in chinos in second-year cultural studies, who struggles bravely with the material, but never gets it. You pass him anyway. You’ll never get a gold Kenny – your articles are too mentally disorganised to be pernicious – but you brighten up our midweek just the same. Meanwhile, the pressure’s on Jennifer Oriel, to bring the crazy. Come on, little bird! You’re lagging badly! Time for the full Uhlmann! — Guy Rundle

Fucking A. The New York Times has published a rave review of a play without once mentioning its full name because it contains — shock, horror! — a swear word. Ben Brantley’s review this week of Fucking-A was labelled a “NYT Critic’s Pick”, but the language in the title was too blue to make it into the storied publication:

“Since I am not a character in this work but an employee of The New York Times, I shall be referring to this play only as ‘A’. (The full title places an Anglo-Saxon adjective before the ‘A’, one commonly used on cable television but not considered fit for print here.)”

The Times‘ deputy managing editor Clifford Levy sent a series of tweets last month explaining the decision to use the work “fucking” in full when reporting form White House aide Anthony Scaramucci’s tirade against a New Yorker reporter. Levy said that the paper had decided the use of the word was newsworthy, and didn’t want readers to search elsewhere for what was said.

Front page of the day.

Revolving door. WHO magazine editor Shane Sutton is leaving the mag to “pursue other projects”, staff have been told, Mumbrella reports. Sutton had been editor of the Pacific Magazines publication for two years, and was previously editor of Famous, also owned by Pac Mags. His replacement hasn’t yet been announced.

Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings. Nine’s night in the metros with a small but clear win over Seven (compared with previous nights) while in the regions, Seven did better. The Block again dominated with more than 1.7 million national viewers. Seven returned First Dates (the local version) at 7.30pm with 1.06 million viewers, and 800 Words an hour later with 1.13 million. Nothing to boast about, but equally nothing there to get the sheep crook out and yank them from the schedule. In fact 800 Words proved the difference for Seven in regional markets 

The House ended with an OK 814,000 for the ABC. It is a pity the program couldn’t have shot a final new ep to take account of the horrible security fence now going up around Parliament House. Tonight the ABC returns Gruen at 8.30pm and we are going to be told that companies know a lot about us that we don’t know — go figure. Ten’s Shark Tank sank again — 655,000 national viewers is nowhere near enough — it and Australian Survivor are teetering on the edge of the ratings abyss.

In regional markets it was Seven News on top with 614,000 viewers, followed by The Block with 529,000, then Seven News/TT with 518,000, Home and Away was fourth with 476,000 and 800 Words was fifth with 442,000.  — Read the rest on the Crikey website