Rush hearing judge has no issue with actor’s text

A FEDERAL Court judge said he struggled to see anything sinister in a text in which Hollywood star Geoffrey Rush told an actor 33 years his junior he was thinking of her “more than is socially appropriate”.

Mr Rush’s alleged references to the actress as “yummy or scrumptious” could be acceptable in certain workplaces, Justice Michael Wigney said.

“I wouldn’t say ‘ yummy’ or ‘scrumptious’ to anybody in my workplace but I’m a boring lawyer, and Mr Rush is an actor in a theatrical workplace where people use florid language,” Justice Wigney said yesterday.

The Daily Telegraph’s barrister Tom Blackburn SC said: “In a modern workplace it’s just inappropriate”.

Mr Blackburn was making closing submissions in Mr Rush’s defamation case over a series of 2017 articles which reported that a young actress had lodged a complaint with the Sydney Theatre Company over his alleged “inappropriate behaviour”.

The actress was later named as Eryn Jean Norvill, who earlier told the court that she had felt “trapped” as Mr Rush “slowly” and “deliberately” ran his fingers over her right breast as she played dead on the stage.

Mr Blackburn said Ms Nor- vill “was a very brave witness” who “desperately wanted to stay out of the limelight”.

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