The Daily Telegraph has lost its bid to to overturn a court ruling it must pay Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush $2.9 million for defaming him after it published news stories claiming he acted inappropriately towards a female co-star during a King Lear theatre production.

Last year the tabloid newspaper appealed the judgment by the Federal Court of Australia over its ruling the Telegraph had published a "recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism of the worst kind" and that Mr Rush's accuser, Eryn Jean Norvill, was "prone to exaggeration and embellishment".