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A judge tossed a lawsuit brought by the actors in Franco Zeffirelli’s “Romeo and Juliet” on Thursday.
Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who are now 72, originally claimed that a nude scene in the 1968 film was child pornography and that the pair had been sexually abused while filming it.
Superior Court Judge Alison Mackenzie ruled in favor of a motion from defendant Paramount Pictures to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Hussey, who played Juliet at age 15, and Whiting, who played Romeo at 16.
Although the film was nominated for four Academy Awards, one scene stirred controversy.
In the scene, the pair are in a bedroom scene.It featured Whiting’s buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts.
The actors now allege that director Franco “Zeffirelli — who died in 2019 — assured both actors that there would be no nudity in the film, and that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene. But in the final days of filming, the director allegedly implored them to perform in the nude with body makeup, ‘or the Picture would fail,’” Variety reported.
From Variety:
According to the complaint, Zeffirelli showed them where the camera would be positioned, and assured them that no nudity would be photographed or released in the film. The suit alleges that he was being dishonest and that Whiting and Hussey were in fact filmed nude without their knowledge.
“What they were told and what went on were two different things,” said Tony Marinozzi, who is a business manager for both actors. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo.”
According to the complaint, Hussey and Whiting have suffered mental anguish and emotional distress in the 55 years since the film’s release, and have also lost out on job opportunities. Despite their breakout performances, Hussey and Whiting had only very limited acting careers after “Romeo and Juliet.”
“Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited,” said the actors’ attorney, Solomon Gresen.
“These were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. All of a sudden they were famous at a level they never expected, and in addition they were violated in a way they didn’t know how to deal with.”
But the judge found that the scene in question was protected by the First Amendment.
Mackenzie explained that Hussey and Whiting “have not put forth any authority showing the film here can be deemed to be sufficiently sexually suggestive as a matter of law to be held to be conclusively illegal.”
The actors were seeking damages “believed to be in excess of $500 million.”
A judge says she will dismiss a lawsuit that the stars of 1968′s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ filed over the film’s nude scene, finding that their depiction could not be considered child pornography and they filed their claim too late. https://t.co/oV0GCmz8Sh
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 26, 2023
Actors lose Romeo & Juliet nude scene child sex abuse lawsuit https://t.co/4TITYjrz6V
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 26, 2023
To get more information about this article, please visit Fox News.
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I think the judge is wrong. You protect children before speech.
I think they brought the lawsuit a mite too late. Loved the film and showed it to my students when we studied Shakespeare. Hopefully they are against drag queen story hour for children, now that’s porn