Streuth, cobber! Now it's Geoffrey Rush.

[aldiboronti]

Here’s the story. In brief he’s resigned as President of the Australian Film Academy over an accusation of ‘inappropriate behavior’.

“This decision has not been made lightly,” Rush continued. “However, in the current climate of innuendo and unjustifiable reporting, I believe the decision to make a clean break to clear the air is the best for all concerned.”

According to the AP, the claim against Rush stems from the Oscar winner’s stint in William Shakespeare’s King Lear, in which he starred from November 2015 to January 2016 at the Sydney Theatre Company. A spokeswoman for the theatre reportedly received a complaint that alleged “Mr. Geoffrey Rush had engaged in inappropriate behavior” after his “engagement with the company had ended.”

Further details of the claim were not divulged.

And they weren’t divulged even to Rush himself who tried to get further information and is clearly angry over what he believes is an unfounded allegation. But such are the times we now live in, an allegation is enough, shoot first, ask questions later. Damn! I love this guy’s acting and I really hope this is BS. Sexual assault I can understand, that’s serious stuff, but inappropriate behavior? That could be anything and it could be nothing.

[What_Exit]

Sounds like he shouldn’t have resigned. If he is innocent he should take a stand before this goes from “about time” to a “witch hunt”.

As he did resign though I wonder if there are skeletons in his closet he is worried about.

(And this is why if he was innocent he should have held his ground. Many will feel like I do I strongly suspect.)

[k9bfriender]

@What_Exit

Sounds like he shouldn’t have resigned. If he is innocent he should take a stand before this goes from “about time” to a “witch hunt”.

As he did resign though I wonder if there are skeletons in his closet he is worried about.

(And this is why if he was innocent he should have held his ground. Many will feel like I do I strongly suspect.)

I assume he has plenty of money, so keeping the job is not that important for fiscal reasons.

If he feels the allegations have merit, or that there may be other allegations that come out later that would, then of course he would step down to avoid that.

But if he didn’t feel the allegations had merit, in fact, he doesn’t even know what the allegations are, then he might as well step down then too, as the accusation really is about enough to end his career anyway. Not really worth spending the heartache of fighting an uphill battle. Might as well just retire now, rather than get some pyrrhic victory where no one believes him anyway.

His other option is to go on the offense, and call any accusers liars, and threaten to sue them.

What would you have him do, if he disagrees with the merit of the allegations? What action would an innocent man take?

[What_Exit]

@k9bfriender

I assume he has plenty of money, so keeping the job is not that important for fiscal reasons.

If he feels the allegations have merit, or that there may be other allegations that come out later that would, then of course he would step down to avoid that.

But if he didn’t feel the allegations had merit, in fact, he doesn’t even know what the allegations are, then he might as well step down then too, as the accusation really is about enough to end his career anyway. Not really worth spending the heartache of fighting an uphill battle. Might as well just retire now, rather than get some pyrrhic victory where no one believes him anyway.

His other option is to go on the offense, and call any accusers liars, and threaten to sue them.

What would you have him do, if he disagrees with the merit of the allegations? What action would an innocent man take?

I think an innocent man needs to stand up and fight this before it does become a full fledged witch hunt. He is well off, well established and over 65 years old; if he is innocent, he is in a perfect position to fight the accusation. Might not want to, but it will sadly make him look guilty just quietly going into the night.

See, this is unfair. I hope he is innocent and changes his mind. I want to see the predators brought down but I don’t want to see vague accusations like this fuck up lives & careers.

[Roderick_Femm]

@k9bfriender

I assume he has plenty of money, so keeping the job is not that important for fiscal reasons.

If he feels the allegations have merit, or that there may be other allegations that come out later that would, then of course he would step down to avoid that.

But if he didn’t feel the allegations had merit, in fact, he doesn’t even know what the allegations are, then he might as well step down then too, as the accusation really is about enough to end his career anyway. Not really worth spending the heartache of fighting an uphill battle. Might as well just retire now, rather than get some pyrrhic victory where no one believes him anyway.

His other option is to go on the offense, and call any accusers liars, and threaten to sue them.

What would you have him do, if he disagrees with the merit of the allegations? What action would an innocent man take?

If it were me, I’d like to think I would insist on the same courtesy shown to a defendant at law, at least in this country: to be faced with my accuser, and to be given the opportunity to rebut them, to do the best I can and let the chips fall. If my career is going to be over in any case, I would like at least to defend myself once (again, assuming I know I am innocent) which would allow me to hold my head up even against those who choose to believe the accuser.

Think about what may be the case in 5 years or so. Will the odium die down faster if I staunchly maintained my innocence, or if I ducked my head and just left public life? I think I would be more likely to work again in the former case. At least I like to think so.

Again, this is all assuming he is innocent of this charge. This does not mean that I actually assume he is innocent or that the accuser is lying or that the actual behavior was trivial. It’s just a mental “what if” exercise.

eta: ninja’d. I need to think and type faster.