SYDNEY: Australia's Daily Telegraph is appealing a defamation award to Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush which could cost the Sydney tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch millions of dollars, the newspaper said Monday. In a front-page article published in 2017, the Telegraph wrote that the Sydney Theatre Company received a complaint that Rush had inappropriately touched a female co-star during a staging of "King Lear". Following months of legal proceedings, Justice Michael Wigney ruled that the article was a "recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism" and awarded Rush Aus$850,000 (US$608,000) in damages. Australia's defamation laws are notoriously strict and often favour the person accused of bad behaviour. Rush won the Best Actor Academy Award in 1997 for his role in "Shine" and is one of the few stars to have also won a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Tony Award.

Source: Bangkok Post May 06, 2019 07:30 UTC