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Stars of 1968 "Romeo and Juliet" sue Paramount over nude scenes filmed when they were minors

2023-01-05T01:17:25.201Z


The protagonists of the 1968 film "Romeo and Juliet" filed a lawsuit against Paramount Studios, the film's producer, for allowing it to be released with scenes that showed them nude when they were minors.


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(CNN) --

The stars of the 1968 film "Romeo and Juliet" have filed a lawsuit against Paramount Studios, the film's producer, for allowing it to be released with scenes showing them nude when they were minors.

The lawsuit, filed by stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in Santa Monica Superior Court last week, accuses Paramount of sexual exploitation and distribution of images of nude teenagers.

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In a copy of the complaint provided to CNN, the complaint claims that the film's director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019 and is not named as a defendant in the document, assured the actors that there would be no nudity and that they could " wearing flesh-colored underwear during the love/bedroom scene."

Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey in the lead roles in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," which was released in 1968. (Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

However, according to the complaint, Zeffirelli later told Hussey and Whiting—who were 15 and 16 at the time, respectively—that they "must act in the nude or the film would flop."

The complaint also alleges that the actors were given body makeup and told exactly where the camera would be located, and although the director assured them that no nudes would be photographed or shown in the film, that was not what happened.

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The scene that was included in the film and shown in theaters featured images of Whiting's buttocks and Hussey's bare breasts, the complaint says.

CNN has attempted to contact legal representatives for Paramount Studios and Zeffirelli's son for comment.

The lawsuit is for damages that Hussey and Whiting say are in excess of $500 million.

The actors claim that the scene has caused them mental anguish and emotional distress in the 55 years since the film's release.

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Since the lawsuit was filed in late 2022, it is not affected by the expiration of a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for prior child sexual abuse claims.

The actors, now both in their 70s, also maintain that they have lost job opportunities as a result.

“What they were told and what happened were two different things,” Tony Marinozzi, business manager for both actors, told

Variety

.

“They trusted Franco.

At 16, as actors, they took his initiative that he would not violate that trust they had.

Franco was his friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do?

There are no options.

There was no #MeToo,” he added.

The actors' lawyer, Solomon Gresen, told the outlet that the nude scenes were filmed when his clients “were very young, naive children in the 1960s who didn't understand what was about to happen to them.

Suddenly, they became famous at a level they never expected, and furthermore, they were violated in a way that they didn't know how to handle.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Hussey and Whiting for additional comment.

CNN's Stella Chan contributed to this report

Films

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2023-01-05

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