Geoffrey Rush is awarded $2.9M in the largest defamation payout in Australian history – after actor offered to settle with newspaper for just $50,000 and an apology
- Geoffrey Rush has been awarded the largest defamation payout in Australia
- Daily Telegraph will pay almost $2 million for lost earnings to the 67-year-old
- The new figures comes after Rush was awarded $850,000 for damages in April
- The Daily Telegraph wrote two articles implying Rush had been inappropriate
- Rush sued the publication, saying it made him seem like a sexual predator
- The Daily Telegraph's publisher Nationwide News denied defaming Mr Rush
Geoffrey Rush has been awarded a $2.9million defamation payout - the biggest in Australian history.
The Daily Telegraph will pay almost $2million for lost earnings, on top of the $850,000 in damages for a series of reports falsely accusing him of 'inappropriate behaviour' towards a female actor.
Lawyers for Mr Rush and the publisher of the Telegraph - Nationwide News, had agreed the actor should receive $1.98 million in damages for past and future economic loss resulting from the reports, the Federal Court heard on Thursday.
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Geoffrey Rush (pictured) won his defamation case against a Sydney newspaper publisher and journalist over articles saying he'd been accused of inappropriate behaviour
Australian actor Eryn-Jean Norvill (pictured) made the complaint about Mr Rush after the pair acted together in the Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear
However, despite Nationwide News agreeing to pay the sum, the organisation is appealing the finding of defamation by Federal Court Justice Michael Wigney.
The Daily Telegraph confirmed its appeal in its news report of the case on Thursday.
Mr Rush had previously offered to settle the case for $50,000 and an apology, Mr Rush's barrister Sue Chrystanthou told the court.
And while Mr Rush now boasts the biggest defamation payout in Australian history, the sum is far less than his legal team had originally suggested, which was about $20 million for 10 years of lost earnings.
Actress Rebel Wilson was awarded the historic defamation payout of $4.5 million in 2017 over defamatory articles in Woman's Day magazine, however Victoria's Court of Appeal later slashed the payout to $600,000.
Ms Wilson was then to pay back more than $4 million plus interest.
Rush was awarded $850,000 (£464,000) for aggravated damages in April. The Oscar winner looks set to receive $1.98 million in damages – meaning his total payout looks to be about $2.87million.
The 67-year-old, who played Captain Barbossa in Pirates Of The Caribbean, sued the Daily Telegraph's publisher Nationwide News and journalist Jonathon Moran over two stories and a poster published in late 2017.
Australian actor Geoffrey Rush (centre) has been awarded a $2.9 million defamation payout - the biggest in Australian history
The articles related to an allegation that Mr Rush behaved inappropriately towards a co-star - later revealed to be Eryn Jean Norvill - during a Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear in 2015-16.
Ms Norvill, who played King Lear's daughter Cordelia, claimed he had stroked her breast on stage and stroked her lower back backstage.
Rush, who played King Lear, strongly denied the allegations.
In Sydney's Federal Court last month, Justice Michael Wigney found Mr Rush had been defamed.
'Nationwide News and Mr Moran did not make out their truth defence,' the judge said.
The judge said the articles damaged Rush's career and prevented him from securing work.
The judge described the Daily Telegraph's journalism as 'recklessly irresponsible.'
'This was, in all the circumstances, a recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism of the worst kind - the very worst kind,' he said.
'Those articles were published in an extravagant, excessive and sensationalist manner.'
Rush denied the allegations against him and said Nationwide News and Moran made him out to be a pervert and sexual predator.
Nationwide News denied conveying those imputations but said if it did, they are substantially true.
Ms Chrystanthou has pushed for an injunction.
The Telegraph's barrister, Tom Blackburn SC, argued that an injunction would have a 'chilling effect' on future criticism, ABC reported.
'The injunction sought is a blunt instrument because a legitimate comment which might convey any one of these meanings is criminalised.'
Justice Wigney has reserved his decision on the injunction. A temporary injunction remains in place.