Actors who played star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film are suing Paramount Pictures for child abuse over their brief nude scene, their lawyer said. Olivia Hussey was 15 and Leonard Whiting 16 when they starred in Oscar-winning version of William Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Actors, now in their 70s claim in suit filed in Santa Monica last week that bedroom scene in which buttocks and bare breasts are visible amounts to sexual exploitation by movie studio Paramount and that company was guilty of distributing nude pictures of adolescents.

Suit says Zeffirelli who died in 2019 cajoled them into performing scene, telling them without it “Picture would fail”, having originally insisted there would be no actual nudity, with both actors covered by flesh-coloured underwear.

“Defendants were dishonest and secretly filmed nude or partially nude minor children without their knowledge, in violation of state and federal laws regulating indecency and exploitation of minors for profit,” suit says.

Complaint, which claims damages of hundreds of millions of dollars says two performers have suffered mental anguish and emotional distress in five-and-a-half decades since film came out and that both had only limited professional success in its wake.

Both won Golden Globes for their performances. Solomon Gresen, representing actors, told AFP years that have elapsed since film was made did not lessen damage done, especially as it has been re-released since.

There was no immediate response from Paramount to AFP’s request for comment. Variety reported that during its 2018 interview with Hussey, she had defended nude scene, which she insisted Zeffirelli had done tastefully. “It was needed for film,” she told outlet at time.–Agencies

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 05 2023

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