Romeo and Juliet stars Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey are suing Paramount Footage over a nude scene within the 1968 film, which was filmed once they had been minors.
In a criticism filed Dec. 30 in Santa Monica, Calif., and reviewed by EW, Whiting and Hussey, who had been 16 and 15 on the time of manufacturing, accused the studio of exploitation, sexual harassment, fraud, sexual abuse, negligence, and the distribution of nude photos of youngsters.
The actors, who at the moment are of their 70s, say they’ve suffered psychological anguish and emotional misery within the 5 a long time because the movie’s launch, and have misplaced out on job alternatives. In accordance with the lawsuit, “Paramount owed an obligation to guard their minor kids staff from little one and sexual exploitation.”
They’re looking for damages “believed to be in extra of $500 million,” per the swimsuit.
Everett Assortment Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Representatives for Paramount did not instantly reply to EW’s request for remark Tuesday.
Hussey and Whiting’s criticism alleges that Romeo and Juliet director Franco Zeffirelli assured them there can be no nudity within the film, and that they’d as an alternative put on flesh-colored undergarments to shoot an intimate scene between the titular star-crossed lovers. Nonetheless, within the last days of filming, Zeffirelli allegedly inspired them to movie the bed room scene nude with physique make-up, or the film “would fail.”
Hussey and Whiting additionally allege that Zeffirelli — who died in 2019 — misrepresented the place the digicam can be and filmed them bare with out their data. The completed movie included photos of Hussey’s breasts and Whiting’s buttocks.
“What they had been informed and what went on had been two various things,” Tony Marinozzi, a enterprise supervisor for each actors, informed Selection. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he wouldn’t violate that belief they’d. Franco was their good friend, and admittedly, at 16, what do they do? There aren’t any choices. There was no #MeToo.”
The lawsuit was filed beneath a California legislation that quickly suspended the statute of limitations for claims of kid sexual abuse.
Solomon Gresen, an lawyer for Whiting and Hussey, informed Selection, “Nude photos of minors are illegal and should not be exhibited. These had been very younger naive kids within the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. Unexpectedly they had been well-known at a stage they by no means anticipated, and as well as they had been violated in a manner they did not know the way to take care of.”
Hussey has defended the nude scene in previous interviews. In 2018, she informed Fox Information that it “was finished very tastefully” and “wasn’t that massive of a deal.”
Representatives for Hussey and Whiting did not instantly reply to EW’s request for remark.
Romeo and Juliet was a vital and industrial success on the time of its launch, and was nominated for 4 Oscars. Hussey went on to look in movies resembling Black Christmas, Dying on the Nile, and Undeclared Battle. Whiting’s subsequent movie credit included The Royal Hunt of the Solar, Say Whats up to Yesterday, and Battle Is Hell. The 2 additionally reunited within the 2015 movie Social Suicide.
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