Court upholds actor’s defamation payout

An Australian court on Thursday rejected a newspaper publisher’s appeal against Oscarwinning actor Geoffrey Rush’s A$2.9 million payout for defamation. Three Federal Court judges ruled that articles published by Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2017 conveyed the imputation that Rush was a pervert and that the trial judge had correctly included the actor’s loss of earnings in calculating damages. The Australian actor, who turns 69 on July 6, did not attend the Sydney court to hear the verdict. News Corp.owned Nationwide News appealed trial judge Michael Wigney’s ruling last year that Rush was defamed by newspaper reports saying he had been accused of inappropriate behaviour by actor Eryn Jean Norvill. She played the daughter of Rush’s starring character in a Sydney theatre production of King Lear in 2015 and 2016. The publisher also appealed against the amount of Rush’s payout, including almost $2 million for past and future economic loss, for two articles published in the newspaper and a billboard poster that Wigney found portrayed him untruly as a pervert and a sexual predator. David English, the newspaper’s editor, said he was disappointed by the appeals court ruling that highlighted the need for Australia to change its defamation laws.