Romeo And Juliet stars sue Paramount over nude scene in 1968 film

world
Romeo And Juliet Stars Sue Paramount Over Nude Scene In 1968 Film
Romeo And Juliet Lawsuit, © AP/Press Association Images
Share this article

By Andrew Dalton, Associated Press

The two stars of Romeo And Juliet have sued Paramount Pictures for more than 500 million dollars (£414m) over a nude scene in the 1968 film shot when they were teenagers.

Olivia Hussey, then 15 and now 71, and Leonard Whiting, then 16 and now 72, filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud.

Advertisement

Director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, initially told the two that they would wear flesh-coloured undergarments in the bedroom scene that comes late in the movie and was shot on the final days of filming, the suit alleges.

But on the morning of the shoot, Zeffirelli told Whiting, who played Romeo, and Hussey, who played Juliet, that they would wear only body make-up, while still assuring them the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity.


Romeo and Juliet Lawsuit
Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey were teenagers when the film was shot (Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

Advertisement

Yet they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge, in violation of California and federal laws against indecency and the exploitation of children, the suit says.

Zeffirelli told them they must act in the nude “or the picture would fail” and their careers would be hurt, the suit says. The actors “believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body make-up as demanded”.

Whiting’s bare buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts are briefly shown during the scene.

The film, and its theme song, were major hits at the time, and it has been shown to generations of high school students studying the Shakespeare play.

Advertisement


Romeo and Juliet Lawsuit
Romeo and Juliet movie director Franco Zeffirelli, left, with Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in 1968 (Eustache Cardenas/AP)

The court filing says Hussey and Whiting have suffered emotional damage and mental anguish for decades, and that each had careers that did not reflect the success of the movie.

It says given that suffering and the revenue brought in by the film since its release, the actors are entitled to damages of more than 500 million dollars.

Advertisement

The lawsuit was filed under a California law temporarily suspending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, which has led to a host of new lawsuits and the revival of many others that were previously dismissed.

Hussey defended the scene in a 2018 interview with Variety – which first reported the lawsuit – marking the film’s 50th anniversary.

“Nobody my age had done that before,” she said, adding that Zeffirelli shot it tastefully. “It was needed for the film.”

Read More

Message submitting... Thank you for waiting.

Want us to email you top stories each lunch time?

Download our Apps
© BreakingNews.ie 2024, developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com