COURT ASKED TO REINSTATE $100,000 REDGRAVE DAMAGES

Lawyers for actress Vanessa Redgrave have asked a federal appeals court to reinstate the $100,000 in damages a jury had awarded in her suit against the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

In Tuesday’s appeal, Redgrave’s attorneys said the orchestra had canceled the contract because trustees and subscribers disagreed with her political views.

The orchestra said it canceled Redgrave’s 1982 appearance to narrate the opera “Oedipus Rex” out of safety concerns because it had received threats from the Jewish Defense League.

In seeking to have the damages award reinstated, attorneys for the British actress said in a brief that the $100,000--about half her average annual earnings--was “a reasonable one in light of the fact that Ms. Redgrave could not obtain work for more than one year after the cancellation.”