Lawyers dine out on restaurant review

Jun 15, 2007, 1:39 GMT

Sydney - The late US theatre critic Dorothy Parker, who famously wrote the scathing one-line review, 'The House Beautiful is the play lousy,' would likely end up defending her candour in court in modern day Australia.

Commenting Friday on a shock High Court ruling that The Sydney Morning Herald had helped put the posh Coco Roco restaurant out of business by giving it a 9/20 rating, respected food critic Simon Thompson said his fear was that from now on 'anything short of hagiography will be defamatory.'

Coco Roco, which opened in September 2003 and closed before its first Christmas, was described by the paper as a 'bleak spot on the culinary landscape' with 'unpalatable' food and flavours that 'jangled like a car crash.'

The owners sued for defamation and the High court upheld a lower court decision that the review implied Coco Roco served low-grade meals for high-end prices.

Arts festival organizer and one-time food critic Leo Schofield said the ruling established a precedent that could have cinemas blaming film critics for poor box office takings and theatres going to court over the kind of poisonous reviews Parker made famous.

'If a poor review leads to diminished returns at the box office of the theatre, are we going to now say that it's due to the review and not to the quality of the work?' he asked.