Geoffrey Rush sues Sydney newspaper over theatre story

The film team of Final Portrait at the Berlinale 2017 (Photo By Martin Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0)

CANBERRA, Australia — Geoffrey Rush is suing a Sydney newspaper for defamation over its reporting of an actress’s complaint against the Oscar-winning actor of “inappropriate behaviour.”

The Daily Telegraph newspaper broke the story last week that the Sydney Theatre Company had confirmed receiving the complaint. The company has released no details of the complaint other than it alleged “inappropriate behaviour” while Rush was an employee and was not raised until after he had left. Rush has denied any misconduct.

Rush says he filed for defamation against the News Corp. newspaper on Friday in the Australian Federal Court.

The Daily Telegraph editor Chris Dore says his newspaper had accurately reported that the theatre had received the complaint.

Rush’s lawyer Nicholas Pullen did not specify the damages Rush is seeking.