Oscars: Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and Rupert Everett’s crush

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Before getting together for the multiple Oscar-nominated “The King’s Speech,” Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush hadn’t seen each other since they worked together on past best picture winner “Shakespeare in Love” in 1998. Rush played theater manager Philip Henslowe; Firth, the debt-choked lord betrothed to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Viola. The two actors shared all of one scene in the film and spent more time together promoting the movie than they did shooting it.

“And I’ve completely blotted out that press junket with the exception of the evenings I spent with Colin and Rupert Everett, drinking and laughing like fools,” Rush says.

“Yes, Rupert walked away with a lot of that film,” Firth says. The two spoke to The Envelope earlier this year for a story about ‘The King’s Speech.’

Firth and Everett have apparently ended the on-again, off-again feud that dates back to the 1984 film “Another Country,” a movie that marked the big-screen debut for both actors. Everett wrote in his 2006 memoir that he fancied Firth until he “produced a guitar and began to sing protest songs between scenes.”

From the book: “‘There are limits,’ said my friend Piers Flint-Shipman, ‘when “Lemon Tree, Very Pretty” began,” Everett wrote. “Colin was visibly pained by our superficiality.”

Says Rush to Firth: “Having done stints with Rupert on red carpets and other banana skins, I laughed at every line. It was like being back at that bar.”

“It’s also wildly off the truth,” Firth interjects. “Everything he says is wrong.”

Rush: “Really?”

Firth: “Oh, yeah. I have to say that because I’m in the bloody book. I deny everything. I would never have brought a guitar to the set in Rupert Everett’s presence or any other person.”

Rush: “Well then, you really need to write your own book, don’t you? You have a vivid imagination. I’m sure you could pay him back … with interest.”

Firth quickly changed the subject, so don’t expect that particular tell-all anytime soon.

-- Glenn Whipp