Rush: I’ve been a hermit

GEOFFREY Rush said he has lived a “hermit-like existence” for the last year despite taking trips to London, Italy, Los Angeles and the Adelaide Festival.

“It’s not really a hermit-like existence, is it Mr Rush?” asked barrister Tom Blackburn, SC, during cross examination in the actor’s defamation trial against The Daily Telegraph.

“It was a hermit-like existence, generally, for that long period in time,” the actor said.

Mr Blackburn said: “Except for when you went to awards ceremonies and festivals?”

Mr Rush is suing The Daily Telegraph after it reported an actor in King Lear had lodged a complaint with the Sydney Theatre Company over his “inappropriate behaviour”.

Since the articles were published Mr Rush said he and wife Jane Menelaus “were trapped into a reclusive” existence.

In an affidavit supplied to the court in April Mr Rush’s solicitor Nick Pullen said his client was “virtually housebound”.

Mr Rush told the court he had spent two weeks in Umbria, Italy, on holiday, eight days in London, which included trips to the theatre and to restaurants with friends, a 48-hour round trip to Los Angeles and three days at the Adelaide Festival in March.

The Oscar winner denies any wrongdoing and claims two front page articles in the newspaper about the alleged incident painted him as a “pervert” and “sexual predator”.