Actor Eryn Jean Norvill, dragged into a #MeToo scandal she never wanted made public, sat and watched as a judge told the world he didn’t believe her.
Justice Michael Wigney’s face was grim, devoid of the jollity that had regularly surfaced last year during the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial, as he swept into court on Thursday afternoon to complete his unenviable task.
Typically a #MeToo story involves a person, most often a woman, relating an experience of sexual harassment or assault on their own terms. Not in this case. Rush’s accuser was revealed in court proceedings as 34-year-old actor Eryn Jean Norvill, who had made a private workplace complaint following the production.
This scene is pivotal, both to the play and to this defamation case. It is the moment in which Lear reckons with the extent of his folly; having reconciled with his banished daughter at last, he has now lost her again. Mad with regret, he keels over and dies, in the grip of a false hope that she is breathing.
Like everything in this case, the issue is far more complicated than those contradictory sentences. There are pages and pages of evidence about the alleged touch. Director Neil Armfield testified he was watching “like a hawk” and saw nothing. Actor Mark Winter said he “unequivocally” saw Rush cup Norvill’s left breast on stage.
As for the Telegraph, Wigney labelled the articles about Rush “recklessly irresponsible” and said it was “sensationalist journalism of the worst kind”. The now infamous “KING LEER” front page, he said, was particularly unfair.For Norvill, it must have been devastating.on Thursday, she was seated in the front row of the packed public gallery, listening attentively. Her head was tilted at a slight angle, her face betrayed no emotion.
Take the breast touch. It seems that Rush’s devotion to acting was the major sticking point for Wigney, who detailed this issue first, and at length. He also factored in the absence of other witness accounts or stage notes referencing the alleged incident, as well as Armfield’s evidence that he did not see it. He found that Winter’s evidence had major inconsistencies with Norvill’s account, was broadly unreliable, and delivered in a strangely “matter-of-fact” way.
Giving evidence, Norvill was adamant this was not the case. She said she “wrote in poetry” to Rush, and a concise “Thank you” or the like would have generated tension. Again, Wigney was unpersuaded. Sure, it was unreasonable to expect Norvill to make allegations to the journalist, or to criticise Rush in a promotional interview, he wrote. But it didn’t follow that she was obliged to make positive statements about him — let alone “highly complimentary” ones.Wigney accepted Rush’s evidence that he intended the comment to be funny, and a compliment.
Was it possible Nevin, Buday and Armfield did in fact witness Rush’s behaviour but just didn’t think it was wrong because of their age? “I’m astounded you would find this in its context in any way inappropriate,” Buday told the barrister. “It wouldn’t happen in a registry of this court, and nor should it happen in the theatre, was Miss Norvill’s point.”
Wigney also said that, compared to the texts Rush and Norvill sent, the words seemed “quaintly old-fashioned and harmless”. Unfortunately for Norvill, in many respects, it is that simple. The distinction is already lost in the wash, swept away by the magnitude of Rush’s victory and the Telegraph’s — and her — defeat.After court adjourned, Rush, looking deflated, told journalists: “There are no winners in this case. It has been extremely distressing for everyone involved.”
Defamation law expert David Rolph said there are instances in which lawsuits seem to be the best or only option for restoring a person's reputation, but going to court is a “crude mechanism” that can often end up magnifying the hurt and distress caused by defamation in the first place. She did not dwell on how the case came to be, only saying “I never wanted these issues dealt with by a court”.
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