Romeo and Juliet 1968

2023 - 1 - 4

Olivia Hussey Olivia Hussey

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Image courtesy of "BBC News"

Romeo and Juliet: Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting sue over ... (BBC News)

The stars of the Oscar-winning 1968 film Romeo and Juliet are suing Paramount Pictures for sexual abuse over a nude scene they appeared in.

The actors "believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body makeup as demanded". "And Leonard wasn't shy at all! "Nobody my age had done that before," she said, adding that Zeffirelli shot it tastefully. There was no #MeToo." "What they were told and what went on were two different things," said Tony Marinozzi, a business manager for the two actors. Zeffirelli told them they must act in the nude "or the picture would fail" and their careers would be hurt, the pair claim in the lawsuit.

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Image courtesy of "Screen Rant"

Romeo & Juliet 1968 Stars File Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against ... (Screen Rant)

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who starred in 1968's Romeo and Juliet, are suing Paramount Pictures for a sex scene they filmed as minors.

Hussey and Whiting's manager has commended them for filing the suit, saying that it was very courageous of the now 71- and 72-year-old actors to In 2018, Hussey actually defended the scene in an interview, stating that it was "needed for the film" and "wasn't that big of a deal." Hussey also says that while the nude scene was shocking in America in 1968, it was much more common in European films, and that "in the middle of shooting, [she] just completely forgot [she] didn’t have clothes on." However, on the day the sex scene was set to be shot, Zeffirelli told Hussey and Whiting that the film would "fail" if they did not act in the nude, while still assuring them they would be obscured by the positioning of the camera. The lawsuit was filed on December 30, 2022 and concerns a sex scene in the film which showed Hussey's breasts and Whiting's buttocks, despite reassurances supplied to the actors that there would be no nudity in the film. Zeffirelli that there would be no nudity filmed or exhibited and that Plaintiffs would be wearing flesh colored undergarments during the bedroom/love scene.

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Image courtesy of "NBC News"

'Romeo & Juliet' stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting sue over ... (NBC News)

Romeo and Juliet” stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, accusing Paramount of sexually exploiting ...

“It was needed for the film.” The courts saw an influx of complaints against the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic church, among other organizations, in the days leading up to the Dec. “Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited,” said the actors’ attorney, Solomon Gresen, in an interview. “These were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. 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.” Hussey was 15 at the time and Whiting was 16.

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Image courtesy of "NPR"

The underage stars of a hit 1968 version of 'Romeo & Juliet' sue ... (NPR)

Olivia Hussey, then 15, and Leonard Whiting, then 16, allege sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud, and are seeking more than $500 million from ...

The actors "believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body makeup as demanded." "Nobody my age had done that before," she said, adding that Zeffirelli shot it tastefully. The sexual assault scene in 'Last Tango In Paris' clouds Bertolucci's career

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Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

Teen Stars of 'Romeo and Juliet' Sue Over Nudity in 1968 Film (The New York Times)

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting assert in a lawsuit that Paramount Pictures should have known nude images of them in their teens were “secretly and ...

She told [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/olivia-hussey-recalls-controversial-romeo-and-juliet-role-at-16-reveals-personal-tragedies) that “it wasn’t that big of a deal” and that the film’s production crew had become a “big family.” Hussey’s interviews about the scene showed her trying to “come to grips” with the situation and express her pride for the film and her performance, although, he said, she was never proud of that scene. Hussey had expressed some approval of how the scene was filmed, telling The scene was filmed on a closed set, Ms. Hussey had worked with the director again in the 1977 mini-series “ Hussey recalls the filming of the scene, writing that after a makeup artist approached her to apply full body makeup, she confronted Mr. In recent days, the state has seen a He said that over the years, the actors had maintained a “relationship of profound gratitude and friendship” with Mr. Hussey was 16 years old when the scene was filmed, and Mr. (The scene was filmed in September 1967, he said, though the lawsuit that was filed contains an inaccurate date.) According to the lawsuit, Mr. In the scene, Mr.

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Image courtesy of "CNBC"

Paramount sued for $500 million over 1968 'Romeo & Juliet' nude ... (CNBC)

Two stars of the 1968 film adaptation of "Romeo & Juliet" have sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million over a nude scene the actors shot as ...

According to the filing, Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, initially told the actors that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene in which Whiting's bare buttocks and Hussey's bare breasts are briefly shown. Leonard Whiting, 72, and Olivia Hussey, 71, claim director Franco Zeffirelli "secretly" filmed them nude or partially nude without their knowledge despite previous assurances that there would be no nudity exhibited in the Oscar-winning film. "They surely know better.

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Image courtesy of "The Wall Street Journal"

'Romeo and Juliet' Stars Sue Paramount Over Teen Nude Scene in ... (The Wall Street Journal)

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, now in their 70s, allege they were sexually exploited.

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Image courtesy of "Hyperallergic"

Stars of 1968 Romeo and Juliet Sue Over Underage Nude Scene (Hyperallergic)

Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were ages 15 and 16 when the film was shot.

“These were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them,” he said. The film was a hit for both breakout stars as it won two of the four Oscars it was nominated for in the 41st Academy Awards in 1969. “It was needed for the film,” Hussey told [Looking Beyond the “Brotherhood” of the Pre-Raphaelites](https://hyperallergic.com/793924/looking-beyond-the-brotherhood-of-the-pre-raphaelites/) [Juan Fuentes’s Lexicon of Longing](https://hyperallergic.com/763973/juan-fuentes-lexicon-of-longing/) [Architected Futures and Reimagined Pasts](https://hyperallergic.com/782049/architected-futures-and-reimagined-pasts-merryn-omotayo-alaka-sam-fresquez/) Originally, Zeffirelli had assured the pair that they would not be filming nude, the document claims, but in flesh-colored undergarments with strategic camerawork to create the illusion of total nudity. Whiting and Hussey were able to file the lawsuit on account of Assembly Bill 218 which [Archaeologists Find Possible Remains of Temple of Poseidon](https://hyperallergic.com/793898/archaeologists-find-possible-remains-of-temple-of-poseidon/) However, on the day of the bedroom scene shoot, Zefirelli allegedly informed them that they would have to be nude with body makeup. Former teen stars Olivia Hussey, now 71, and Leonard Whiting, 72, filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures over the inclusion of an underage nude scene in the Oscar-winning 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, the film features a brief scene in which 16-year-old Whiting’s bare buttocks and 15-year-old Hussey’s bare breasts are visible.

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Image courtesy of "Vanity Fair"

'Romeo and Juliet' Stars, 71 and 72, Are Suing Paramount Pictures ... (Vanity Fair)

In the lawsuit, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting—who were underage when they portrayed the star-crossed lovers and filmed the 1968 film's nude scene—allege ...

The filing says both Hussey and Whiting have suffered emotional damage and mental anguish in the decades since, and that they have “suffered a lifetime of loss of earnings” and job opportunities. According to the suit, Zeffirelli told the teenagers that they had to act in the nude “or the Picture would fail,” which would negatively impact their nascent careers. [26 Most Anticipated Movies](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/12/most-anticipated-2023-movies?itm_content=footer-recirc&itm_campaign=more-great-stories-010323)of 2023 “Nobody my age had done that before,” she said, claiming that Zeffirelli shot it tastefully. The pair claims that Zeffirelli initially told the two star-crossed lovers that they would be given flesh-colored undergarments to wear during their bedroom scene, which occurs near the end of the film. According to a copy of the

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Image courtesy of "CNN"

Stars of 1968's 'Romeo and Juliet' sue Paramount over nude scenes ... (CNN)

Actors from the 1968 film "Romeo and Juliet" have filed a lawsuit against Paramount Studios, which produced the film, for allowing the movie to be released ...

The actors’ attorney, Solomon Gresen, told the outlet that the nude scenes were shot when his clients “were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. The lawsuit seeks damages Hussey and Whiting say are believed to be in excess of $500 million. There was no #MeToo.”

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Image courtesy of "Decider"

The Problematics: Did Today's Pervasive "Mr. Skin" Culture Lead To ... (Decider)

After the Production Code was abandoned, filmmakers like Franco Zeffirelli spent the '60s taking advantage of what could be called “the new freedoms.”

[Some Came Running](http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/) and tweets, mostly in jest, at [@glenn__kenny](https://twitter.com/Glenn__Kenny). But of course the Internet itself seems almost by design to appeal to macro perversity, and one may look up stills of the nude scene with ease, at least as of now. Particularly as they pertain to depictions of nudity and American attitudes to them. According to [the report in Variety](https://variety.com/2023/film/news/romeo-and-juliet-child-abuse-nude-scene-lawsuit-1235477837/), the actors state that the director of the 1968 film [Romeo and Juliet](https://decider.com/movie/romeo-and-juliet-1968/), Franco Zeffirelli, hoodwinked the pair into performing nude in a bedroom scene, after having previously assured them that they would wear body stockings for their love scene. He gets up and opens the curtains of the bedroom. Nevertheless, some parties will indeed condemn the glimpse of a bare female breast in a two-hour cinematic drama as child pornography. About an hour and a half of an over two hour picture. [The Taming of the Shrew](https://decider.com/movie/the-taming-of-the-shrew-1967/), starring then-Hollywood-It-Couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. As for the nude scene in the Zeffirelli picture: A would-be drooler with a low tolerance for Shakespeare will have to sit through a lot of Bard talk before getting to it. (Whiting, who had a much more limited acting career post Romeo and Juliet, may have more credibility in this respect.) And one is also reasonably certain that, if successful, the suit could set a far-reaching precedent. The Chicago Board of Education I am informed, objects to the nudity and will not approve the film for educational use after its commercial run. One of the attorneys, Solomon Green, said in a statement that “nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited.” The “but this is art” arguments that oppose such blanket statements have not been entirely settled — see the controversies still surrounding the work of

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