• A lawyer accused Oscar-winning Australian actor Geoffrey Rush in court Monday of touching an actress inappropriately on a Sydney stage three years ago while he was starring in a production of King Lear. Rush is suing Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Federal Court for defamation over articles last year which alleged inappropriate behavior and touching during the Sydney Theatre Company production in 2015. On Monday, the newspaper's lawyer, Tom Blackburn, told the court that Rush, now 66, touched an actress who has not been identified on five consecutive nights in the last week of the production in a way that he had not done before and that made her uncomfortable. "She said stop -- he didn't. He went on doing it. Our case is that that in itself is inappropriate," Blackburn told the court. But Rush's lawyer, Richard McHugh, told the court the accusations were vague. "To this day, it's not clear what they're saying. Not just unclear, it's completely opaque," McHugh said. Justice Michael Wigney delayed his decision on that request to a later date. The inappropriate behavior is alleged to have occurred when Rush and the actress were required to touch onstage, McHugh said. Rush, who was not in court on Monday, has denied behaving inappropriately.
• Country music star Vince Gill is defending the Recording Academy over the criticism that female artists were underrepresented at this year's Grammy Awards. "I look at it kind of trying to see the whole field, you know. And I think the Grammys will go on and the country artists will feel slighted. Or maybe the classical people will feel slighted," Gill said. "It's impossible to pull something off like that and not leave a few people by the wayside." The country star spoke before a benefit concert for the Country Music Hall of Fame in New York last week where he shared the stage with Emmylou Harris, Maren Morris, and Kesha. Sitting with Harris and Morris before the concert, Gill, a 21-time Grammy winner, said all that matters is that musical people are "conscious of what's great at the end of the day." He added: "We don't care about genres, of color of skin, or gender, or anything. We just love playing music with great people and that's all," he said. Morris, who won her first Grammy last year, agreed, noting that country singer Alison Krauss is among the top Grammy winners. "I mean, there's obviously some things that need to be looked at, I think, and maybe it's just voting members. Maybe we need to like expand on that," Morris said. Krauss has won 27 Grammys and berm nominated 44 times. Krauss is actually tied for second place with Quincy Jones for most Grammy wins.
A Section on 02/20/2018