Actor Craig McLachlan's defamation trial has heard he indecently assaulted 11 women he worked with in Australian theatre and television productions.
McLachlan is suing the ABC and Fairfax Media for defamation over stories from 2018 containing allegations he indecently assaulted, harassed, bullied and exposed himself to female cast members during the 2014 tour of The Rocky Horror Show.
He is also suing actress Christie Whelan Browne who made the allegations to the ABC's 7.30 program and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Fairfax Media has since been bought by Nine Entertainment Co.
Michael Hodge QC, the lawyer representing Whelan Browne and the media, told the jury 11 women would give evidence during the trial about inappropriate encounters they had with McLachlan during performances, filming and behind the scenes.
Six of the women worked on the 2014 Rocky Horror Show production, one worked on the 2018 Rocky Horror Show production, another worked with McLachlan on the soap opera Neighbours, one was showrunner on Channel 7's City Homicide series and two were actors in The Doctor Blake Mysteries.
Mr Hodge told the court three of the actors from the The Rocky Horror Show who played the role of Janet would give evidence about alleged indecent touching during a bedroom scene.
The court heard these women would allege McLachlan, who played the character of Dr Frank-N-Furter, would kiss and touch their breasts and other body parts under the bed covers and out of view of the audience.
Mr Hodge said this was not something McLachlan had been directed to do, and that it had not been agreed to with the other actors.
The court heard Whelan Browne would give evidence that, during a show in Perth, McLachlan pulled her underpants to the side while under the covers and kissed her buttocks, and that she was also touched inappropriately during a Melbourne performance.
However, McLachlan later gave evidence that he only kissed the actors who played Janet on the shoulder or arm during the bedroom scene.
During the trial Whelan Browne will also detail another night on stage where McLachlan grabbed her by the jaw and aggressively threw her face to one side, Mr Hodge said.
"This wasn't something in the script," he said.
Mr Hodge told the jury that while McLachlan and Whelan Browne didn't have the same sense of humour, there is a point of overlap that is "pretty filthy".
"You will likely conclude Whelan Browne finds things funny that other people might find highly offensive."
McLachlan then took the stand and told the jury that physical displays of affection and practical jokes between Rocky Horror cast members were very common backstage and during rehearsals.
He narrowed in on Whelan Browne being the "goosing queen" of the cast — explaining that a "goose" is when someone uses a couple of fingers to poke someone else between the buttocks.
"It was one of [Whelan Browne's] regular gags throughout the entire tour … wedgies were also a popular one," he said.
McLachlan said Whelan Browne would often try to "dack" some of the male cast members, meaning to pull their pants down, and during a preview season in Brisbane came into McLachlan's dressing room and asked if he could see her vagina through her stage underwear.
He recounted how the pair were good friends during the Rocky Horror production and met for the first time while working on a 2005 arena production of the musical Grease.
"Our relationship at that time was terrific ... lots of laughs," he said.
McLachlan was shown a photo of the pair posing backstage and explained Whelan Browne had asked him if they could do some "quasi porno shots" in their costumes.
"[She] said I can lean against the wall and pull her hair ... I said I will do the poses but I won't pull your hair."
Yesterday, the actor's lawyer accused the ABC and Fairfax of launching a "double-pronged attack", which damaged McLachlan's reputation.
The hearing is expected to run for about five weeks.
