Hollywood star Geoffrey Rush won a multi-million-dollar payout Thursday after an appeal by a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper against a defamation ruling was thrown out by an Australian court.
He will receive $2 million for lost earnings and compensation after a court rejected an appeal seeking reduced costs and a retrial of the case.
According to local media, the sum awarded to Rush is the largest ever paid to an individual in Australia.
In a front-page article published in 2017, the Daily Telegraph wrote that the Sydney Theater Company received a complaint that Rush had inappropriately touched a female co-star during a staging of "King Lear".
However, a Sydney judge said the content was a "recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism," AFP reported.
Rush won the Best Actor Academy Award in 1997 for his role in "Shine" and is one of the few stars to have also won a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Tony Award.
