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The theatre company behind The Rocky Horror Show will seek a suppression order over parts of Christie Whelan Browne’s sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination lawsuit to avoid causing “undue distress or embarrassment” to Craig McLachlan, the Federal Court has heard.
Lawyers for Whelan Browne filed a statement of claim in the Federal Court in Sydney earlier this month against Oldfield Entertainment, formerly known as GFO Entertainment, alleging she was subjected to repeated sexual harassment by McLachlan during the show.
Craig McLachlan and Christie Whelan Browne on stage during the Rocky Horror Show.Credit: Angela Wylie
“My claim is about my experiences when I was employed as a lead actor in The Rocky Horror Show in 2014 and then Oldfield’s response to my complaints from 2017 to date,” Whelan Browne said in a media release at the time.
Her lawsuit alleged Oldfield Entertainment “unlawfully discriminated against me under the Sex Discrimination Act by subjecting me to sex discrimination, repeated sexual harassment by a fellow cast member and to victimisation when I spoke out against him”, Whelan Browne said.
The Federal Court has yet to release documents in the case. At a first case management hearing in Sydney on Friday, conducted online, Oldfield Entertainment’s barrister Bronwyn Byrnes foreshadowed the company would apply for a suppression order over parts of Whelan Browne’s statement of claim.
“The orders are necessary to avoid causing a non-party [to the proceedings]… undue distress or embarrassment, which could cause him to not cooperate in these proceedings, which would further prejudice the respondent’s defence,” Byrnes said.
“While there has been reporting in the media surrounding the [allegations in previous years] … that reporting did cause Mr McLachlan considerable distress and embarrassment at the time and is therefore likely to be repeated if the order is not made.”
Kate Eastman, SC, acting for Whelan Browne, said that although she was not yet aware of the nature and scope of the suppression order application, which has yet to be made, “from what I have seen, we’ll be able to tell Your Honour by reference to each particular paragraph of the statement of claim the matters that are already in the public domain”.
“My learned friend has made some observations about Mr McLachlan’s embarrassment. [We’ve seen] no evidence about that, but there also are matters of Mr McLachlan’s public comments about his defamation proceedings that are in the public domain, and those being matters that I think we or others may need to bring to Your Honour’s attention as well.”
McLachlan launched defamation proceedings in 2018 against The Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC and Whelan Browne over reports alleging he indecently assaulted and sexually harassed female performers during the 2014 stage production of The Rocky Horror Show.
McLachlan abruptly abandoned the case last year, before the media organisations and Whelan Browne had called their witnesses to give evidence. He was ordered to pay legal costs, reportedly in the order of $2 million.
Lawyers for Whelan Browne and Oldfield Entertainment will return to the Federal Court on Monday afternoon to discuss timetabling arrangements for a final hearing for a suppression order.
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