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SYDNEY, Australia — When Hollywood’s elite donned black at this year’s Golden Globes to raise awareness for the #MeToo movement, the Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush skipped the event altogether. Accused of sexually harassing a young actress during a production in Sydney of “King Lear,” Mr. Rush was suffering “physical trauma,” a friend said.

Mr. Rush, 67, is now suing the Australian tabloid that had splashed the allegations across two front-page articles last year, claiming he was defamed. The case has become a moment of reckoning for both the Australian entertainment industry and a #MeToo movement that has been muted here compared with its counterparts in the United States and elsewhere.

Closing arguments began Wednesday in the trial, which pits Mr. Rush against Rupert Murdoch’s Nationwide News, publisher of the tabloid, The Daily Telegraph.