Geoffrey Rush now holds the record for the largest defamation payout to a single person in Australia after The Daily Telegraph agreed to pay the actor almost $2m for lost earnings, on top of an $850 000 payout, for a series of reports accusing him of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards a female actor. A Sydney Morning Herald report notes that yesterday, the Federal Court heard that lawyers for Rush and Nationwide News, the publisher of the Telegraph, had agreed the Oscar winner should receive $1.98m in damages for past and future economic loss resulting from the reports. The court heard Rush had previously offered to settle the case for $50 000, plus costs, and an apology. The $1.98m figure is in addition to $850 000 in compensatory and aggravated damages, plus $42 302 in interest, that Federal Court Justice Michael Wigney previously awarded Rush to vindicate his reputation and compensate him for the ‘personal distress and hurt’ caused by the reports. Actress Eryn Jean Norvill, who appeared opposite Rush in the Sydney Theatre Company's 2015-16 production of King Lear, gave evidence during the trial that the actor sexually harassed her including by stroking down the side of her right breast to her hip during a preview performance of the play in late 2015. Justice Wigney said he accepted ‘the evidence given by Rush that he never intentionally touched Norvill’s breast’ and he considered the allegation ‘somewhat implausible and improbable’.