The female lead of a musical dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct used foul language to shock her co-stars, talked about her genitals and pulled down her male co-star’s pants, as well as suggestively touching him, a theater company alleges.
Oldfield Entertainment, which staged the troubled 2014 production of The Rocky Horror Show, made the claims about Christie Whelan Browne in documents filed in Federal Court as the company responded to the star’s legal action against them.
Along with three other women involved in the production, Whelan Browne accused her co-star Craig McLachlan of assault, indecent assault and making unwanted advances, leading to a 2020 trial at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where he was found not guilty. .
In documents responding to a lawsuit alleging that they failed to provide a safe work environment, Old Entertainment alleged that Ms. Whelan Browne was a “willing participant” in sexually suggestive behavior with Mr. McLachlan.
Christie Whelan Browne (pictured left) starred with Craig McLachlan (pictured right) in the ill-fated 2014 production of The Rocky Horror Show.
This included “pushing her fingers up or pinching between his buttocks,” pulling down his pants “when he least suspected it” and talking about his genitals with him, according to the statement.
The company also alleges that Whelan Browne gave McLachlan boxers, used a towel to caress his groin area or buttocks, and played crude jokes on each other.
It is also claimed that she came up with derogatory names for her co-stars, including “talentless whore” and “trash whore” and often vowed to “break female stereotypes.”
A dispute over a costume led Ms. Whelan Browne to insult another cast member, calling her “garbage breath,” according to court documents filed this week according to the Daily Telegraph.
Whelan Browne’s absence from several performances in Melbourne due to a back injury led to a “distancing” of the “camaraderie and relationships” between her and other cast members, Oldfield Entertainment said.
The star made “critical comments about the students who took on the role of Janet” and also mocked a male actor’s performance, saying he wasn’t doing his job very well.
In defending the allegations leveled against her by Ms Whelan Browne, Oldfield Entertainment said she was an experienced actress and theater union representative who made no complaints during the show’s run to either Mr McLachlan or the company.
McLachlan was accused of making unwanted sexual advances during ‘Janet’s Bed Scene’ during the play.
Whelan Browne (pictured) alleges that theater company Oldfield Entertainment failed to provide a safe working environment during the staging of the Rocky Horror Show in 2014.
However, the theater company maintained that these scenes were “performed in the context of work that both the plaintiff and Mr McLachlan had agreed to perform under their employment contracts and on the director’s instructions.”
In her statement of claim, Ms Whelan Browne says she went on multiple occasions to staff involved in the production to complain about Mr McLachlan’s alleged conduct and received no support.
According to Federal Court documents filed against Oldfield Entertainment, Ms Whelan Browne is asking the court to award her $1.5 million in damages and a further $500,000 in aggravated damages.
Whelan Browne is also seeking an order for Oldfield Entertainment, headed by producer John Frost, to apologize and for the court to declare the company contravened the Sex Discrimination Act.
Lawyers for Oldfield Entertainment asked the court to dismiss the statement of claim in its entirety and are asking for costs.
The theater company rejects the claim that “a reasonable observer would anticipate allegations of sexualised comments… that would cause offence, humiliation or intimidation to the applicant”.
He says that “the nature of the production, including costumes, characters, dialogue and actions, was highly sexualized.”
The company also claims that acting methods required cast members to “get into character,” and this meant that “sexualized behavior and conversation occurred offstage.”
Whelan Browne went to the media in 2018 with allegations of sexual harassment and indecent assault, among other allegations, perpetrated against her and other female co-stars by McLachlan during the show’s Australian tour in 2014.
In a statement posted on social media in September last year, when she launched Federal Court proceedings against the theater company, the musical theater star said Oldfield’s behavior towards her constituted sexual discrimination and unlawful discrimination.
‘Today I made an application to the Federal Court of Australia against Oldfield… alleging that he unlawfully discriminated against me under the Sex Discrimination Law by subjecting myself to sexual discrimination, repeated sexual harassment by a fellow cast member, and victimization when I spoke out against him,” she said.
“My statement refers to my experiences working as a lead actor on Rocky Horror Show in 2014 and then Oldfield’s response to my complaints from 2017 to date.”
Whelan Browne had previously lodged a complaint against the company with the Australian Human Rights Commission, which concluded in February that the matter “could not be resolved by conciliation”.
A person cannot bring complaints of unlawful discrimination to the Federal Court until the commission has concluded the complaint.
“I submitted this application today with fear and anxiety, but also with the certainty that it is something I must do and that I will see it through to the end,” he said in the statement.
‘I know I deserved better treatment, that I deserved to feel safe and respected in my workplace.
“Other women in the arts deserve better, and I will not accept anything less than that as ‘just as it is.'”
McLachlan has always denied the allegations. In 2018, he launched defamation proceedings against several media outlets over their coverage of the allegations, which he abruptly dropped in 2022, before key witnesses took the stand.
Following this development in May 2022, Ms Whelan Browne criticized Oldfield on social media for “refusing to investigate our claims and threatening to sue us for defamation”.
The star said her ‘sole intention’ in going public with the claims had been to protect female artists in the production of the 2018 show.
Whelan Browne said the experience had left her and the other women “significantly traumatised” and that she had received “multiple threats and ongoing abuse”.
“I know I haven’t seen the end,” he said.
‘I have lost my sense of security in the world, knowing that someone desperately wanted to hurt me for telling the truth.
“This was a result of simply trying to protect other women from the same behavior.”