Geoffrey Rush appeal: Daily Telegraph and Nationwide News lose defamation case against actor – live news

One may accept that Ms Norvill may have endeavoured at relevant times, in the interests of the performance of King Lear as a whole, to maintain good relationships with all cast members …

However, we consider, as counsel for Mr Rush submitted, that Ms Norvill’s relationship with Mr Rush, as described by these witnesses did not sit well with her claims that she had felt “compromised”, “pressured”, “extremely intimidated”, “frightened”, “threatened” and “panicked”. That is to say, there was other evidence suggesting that Ms Norvill’s contemporaneous behaviour was not consistent with the claims she made at trial concerning Mr Rush’s conduct.

For these reasons, we do not consider that the erroneous significance which the judge attached to Ms Norvill’s contemporaneous statements to the journalists should be regarded as material.

Other contemporaneous conduct of Ms Norvill, occurring when she was not subject to the same constraints as those applying in the promotional interviews, was also seemingly inconsistent with the conduct of Mr Rush about which she gave evidence, and justified the judge’s assessment.