Lawyer accuses Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush of inappropriately touching actress

Rush’s lawyer, Richard McHugh, told the court the accusations were vague. Blackburn is fighting Rush’s application to have the newspaper’s truth defence struck out.

A lawyer has accused Oscar-winning Australian actor Geoffrey Rush of repeatedly touching an actress inappropriately on a Sydney stage three years ago while he was starring in a production of King Lear.

File photo of Australian actor Geoffrey Rush in Los Angeles.(NYT)

Rush is suing Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper in the Federal Court for defamation over articles last year which alleged inappropriate behaviour and touching during the Sydney Theatre Company production.

The newspaper’s lawyer, Tom Blackburn, told the court on Monday that the actor touched an actress, who has not been named, on five consecutive nights in the last week of the production in a way that made her uncomfortable.

But Rush’s lawyer, Richard McHugh, told the court the accusations were vague.

Blackburn is fighting Rush’s application to have the newspaper’s truth defence struck out.