Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were teenagers when they enthralled audiences in the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet which was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The film was a stupendous hit and garnered four Academy Awards but created a lot of controversy over a nude bedroom scene which included images of Whiting’s buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts. Now, the actors who are in their 70s have filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica Superior Court against Paramount for allegedly sexually exploiting them and distributing nude images of adolescent children.
Reportedly, the suit alleges that Zeffirelli who passed away in 2019, assured both the actors that there would be no nudity in the film. He told them that they will get to wear flesh-coloured undergarments while filming the bedroom scene. However, he later coaxed them to perform in the nude with body makeup and said else, “or the picture would fail.”
Hussey and Whiting’s business manager, Tony Marinozzi said, “What they were told and what went on were two different things. 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.”
As per the complaint, Hussey and Whiting suffered mental anguish and emotional distress in the 55 years since the film’s release and lost out on several job opportunities. The suit alleges that Zeffirelli was dishonest with Hussey who was 15 at the time and Whiting who was 16. He had shown them the camera’s position and had assured them than no nudity would be photographed or released in Romeo and Juliet. They are seeking damages “believed to be in excess of USD 500 million.”
The actors’ attorney Solomon Gresen was quoted in an interview, “Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited. 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.” The lawsuit comes on the heels of a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for older claims of child sexual abuse.
(Source: Variety)
