Actress Judy Davis says Australian newspaper articles suggest she doesn't like children, AS

Thu, May 8 06:09 PM

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ Two-time Oscar-nominated actress Judy Davis told an Australian court Tuesday that she stopped attending her daughter's soccer games out of anguish over newspaper articles she claims suggested she is a petulant child-hater. The 53-year-old Australian actress, who has won Golden Globe and Emmy awards for her work on screen and television, is suing News Corp.

subsidiary Nationwide News for defamation over articles published in Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper in February 2006 about her behavior at a local council meeting. She has not quantified the damages that she is seeking.

The articles were about Davis' opposition to a council plan to install floodlights for children's soccer training at a park near her Sydney home. The newspaper said she stormed out of a council meeting where the plan was being discussed after an argument with council officials.

Davis claims the articles implied she hated children. During almost four hours in a witness box in the New South Wales state Supreme Court on Tuesday, Davis said her image was tarnished by the newspaper and she was concerned it would affect her 10-year-old daughter, Charlotte.

The actress said she was so worried that she stopped attending her daughter's soccer games. "The parents of the girls in her class might not want her to play with them because her mother doesn't like children," Davis told the court.

"And maybe the soccer team that she's just joined .

might not want her in the team, " she added.

"They're very big things in a young girl's life." Under cross-examination by Nationwide News lawyer Tom Blackburn, Davis denied that she only objected to the floodlights because the park was close to her exclusive waterfront home.

Her eyes widened when Blackburn asked if her husband of 23-years, Australian actor Colin Friels, had ever applied to a court for a restraining order against her. "No," she replied.

The hearing continues Wednesday. Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress for her performance in the 1984 movie "A Passage to India" and for best supporting actress for her 1992 role in "Husbands and Wives.

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