Dog dispute nothing to bark about

AUSSIE Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush says that the frenzy surrounding Amber Heard’s dogs Pistol and Boo wouldn’t have been anywhere near as big a deal in America.

Heard and then husband Johnny Depp fell foul of Australian quarantine law when they illegally brought the Yorkshire terriers into the country while filming the latest Pirates Of the Caribbean film on the Gold Coast. It earned them the ire of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.

Queensland-born Rush, who co-stars in the hit franchise, said the incident “never impacted us on set” but was blown way out of proportion and may have damaged the image of the region.

“I don’t think that would have been as problematic if we’d been in the Caribbean or in America,” he says.

“There was just something a bit narky about the Gold Coast wanting to find something in all of those stories that kept it as front page news, which was tiresome after a while.

“The 2018 (Commonwealth) Games are there and someone from Disney said ‘you guys are going to kill people wanting to come here if it feels like everything is going to happen on a level of nastiness’. It was faux news, even before faux news had been invented.”