Opposing counsel says the only evidence about actor’s inability to work is coming from other people and not Rush himself

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, who is claiming millions of dollars in damages in his defamation case, may never work again, a judge has been told.

“There is a significant risk that Mr Rush will not work again,” Bruce McClintock QC said on Friday, in his submissions about the damages that should be awarded if the actor wins his federal court defamation case.

Rush is suing the Daily Telegraph’s publisher Nationwide News and journalist Jonathon Moran over two articles and a newspaper poster published in 2017, relating to an allegation he behaved inappropriately towards a female co-star.

He has denied the claims, which were later revealed to relate to Eryn Jean Norvill and to a Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear in 2015 and 2016.

Geoffrey Rush defamation trial: Eryn Jean Norvill 'utterly honest' witness, court told Read more

After a three-week hearing, the high-profile case ended on Friday, when Justice Michael Wigney said he would “love to start writing his judgment tomorrow” but his workload precluded him delivering the decision this year.

Referring to past and future economic loss, McClintock said: “What they did to my client has disabled him from working”.

“It does not take much of a taint to destroy a career,” the barrister said.

Tom Blackburn SC, for the newspaper and journalist, said “millions of dollars” were being claimed by Rush but added that the actor had not given evidence that he could not work.

Blackburn said that if Rush was saying that he was entitled to substantial damages, the actor at the very least had to tell the judge something like “I am so damaged, I can’t work”, but this had not happened.

The only evidence was from other people giving their opinion on his mental state, he said.