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'Romeo & Juliet' stars sue over 1968 film's teen nude scene

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The two stars of 1968's "Romeo and Juliet" sued Paramount Pictures for more than $500 million on Tuesday over a nude scene in the film shot when they were teens.

Olivia Hussey, then 15 and now 71, and Leonard Whiting, then 16 now 72, filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud.
Director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, initially told the two that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene that comes late in the movie and was shot on the final days of filming, the suit alleges.




FILE - "Romeo and Juliette" movie director Franco Zeffirelli, left, actors Olivia Hussey, center, and Leonard Whiting are seen after the Parisian premiere of the film in Paris on Sept. 25, 1968.
AP Photo/Eustache Cardenas, File
But on the morning of the shoot, Zeffirelli told Whiting, who played Romeo, and Hussey, who played Juliet, that they would wear only body makeup, while still assuring them the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity, according to the suit.



Yet they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge, in violation of California and federal laws against indecency and the exploitation of children, the suit says.




Zeffirelli told them they must act in the nude "or the Picture would fail" and their careers would be hurt, the suit said. The actors "believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body makeup as demanded."
Whiting's bare buttocks and Hussey's bare breasts are briefly shown during the scene.


The film, and its theme song, were major hits at the time, and has been shown to generations of high school students studying the Shakespeare play since.




The court filing says that Hussey and Whiting have suffered emotional damage and mental anguish for decades, and that each had careers that did not reflect the success of the movie.


It says given that suffering and the revenue brought in by the film since its release, the actors are entitled to damages of more than $500 million.
An email seeking comment from representatives of Paramount was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit was filed under a California law temporarily suspending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse, which has led to a host of new lawsuits and the revival of many others that were previously dismissed.
 
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What a load of crap. I was a freshman in college at the time and frankly I was so busy bawling at the end of the movie the “nude” stuff didn’t matter.
I thought Europeans were so fond of ridiculing Americans for our stuffy Victorian ideas about nudity? Apparently these two Europeans aren’t stuffy about trying to raid Hollywood bank accounts. Nice retirement plan.
This ruins the fond memories of that movie for me.
 
What a load of crap. I was a freshman in college at the time and frankly I was so busy bawling at the end of the movie the “nude” stuff didn’t matter.
I thought Europeans were so fond of ridiculing Americans for our stuffy Victorian ideas about nudity? Apparently these two Europeans aren’t stuffy about trying to raid Hollywood bank accounts. Nice retirement plan.
This ruins the fond memories of that movie for me.

I bet you could find an attorney to represent you in an emotional distress suit against them.
Or maybe we could put together a cla$$ action suit of our own against Paramount for exposing young eyes to that horrible nekkidness
 
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Still looks pretty good.
149984_v9_ba.jpg
 
Seems like a long freaking time in the future to finally register a complaint about how you were treated.

No doubt such things wouldn't fly today however.
 
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Apparently Hussey gave a couple interviews in 2018 which tell a completely different tale.

Per Wikipedia

Wikipedia said:
However, in a interview in August 2018 with Stephanie Nolasco for Fox News to promote the release of her autobiography Girl on the Balcony, Hussey discussed her nude scene in the film and recalled how she felt at ease on the set.[38]

"I think because it was done very tastefully. And in Europe it was very different. In America is was very taboo. But in Europe a lot of the films had nudity. Nobody thought very much of it. But it was just the fact I was 16 that I got a lot of publicity...The large crew we had was whittled down to only the very basic people, a handful of people. It was done later in the day when it wasn't busy. It was a closed set...If you see it, the reality is these two young kids married against their parents wishes and have this one night together and then they die...And it wasn't really banned in any country...And we shot it at the very end of the film. So by that time we've all become a big family...It wasn't that big of a deal. And Leonard wasn't shy at all! In the middle of shooting I just completely forgot I didn't have clothes on."

In another interview with Variety in 2018, Hussey defended the nude scene. "Nobody my age had done that before," she said, adding that Zeffirelli shot it tastefully. "It was needed for the film. Everyone thinks they were so young they didn't realize what they were doing. But we were very aware. We both came from drama schools and when you work you take your work very seriously."[39][40][41]
 
Given female teachers' propensity for banging the underaged, it was probably a feature not a bug in her eyes.
Jerome didn't notice Mrs. Jones scanning the room during the scene for any boys who seemed especially interested. Head on a swivel, Jerome - the opportunity was there.
 
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Given female teachers' propensity for banging the underaged, it was probably a feature not a bug in her eyes.

CSB time...

We watched this version over two days after we had finished getting assigned parts and reading the play aloud. At the beginning of class on both days Mrs. Jones made it very clear that there was brief nudity and that we were to behave in a mature manner when it came on. As day two was winding down and the star-crossed lovers were finally able to be together and consummate the secret marriage the infamous scene arrives. Everybody in the classroom was calm and prepared to let it pass without incident, but fate put notorious troublemaker and filter-less super senior Peter Jones in the hallway at the exact right time. He peered into the little window and let out a noise that I imagine sounded very similar to fabled 'rebel-yell'.

All control went out the window and we watched the rest of the movie with a piece of hastily taped construction paper over the window.
 
Gross and all, but this is precisely what statute of limitations are for. What makes this one particularly enjoyable is that they applied the all-too-modern procedure of waiting for the "real" defendant-witness to die before bringing their suit to make it easier to retrospectively apply modern standards to the matter.
 
I remember watching this in 9th grade as well. If kids responded to the scene like we did back then they would all be taking sensitivity classes.

I'm guessing they no longer show it?
Not without some permission slips I'm sure. I'm kind of shocked that it would still be in circulation.

Anyone that's seen the film knows it's not gratuitous, but it’s still half naked kids and that just doesn't fly.
 
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OK because someone needed to put in the research I took it upon myself to do so.

She has been nude in several other movies including one of the Psycho movies and another only 16 years ago.

So yeah definately a money grab.
 
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She was 16 in Romeo & Juliet --- what about the Psycho nudes and the one from 16 years ago?
Not sure what you are referring to with the psycho nudes and one from 16 years ago.
 
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Not sure what you are referring to with the psycho nudes and one from 16 years ago.

Bro. Post 19.

OK because someone needed to put in the research I took it upon myself to do so.

She has been nude in several other movies including one of the Psycho movies and another only 16 years ago.

So yeah definately a money grab.
 
OK because someone needed to put in the research I took it upon myself to do so.

She has been nude in several other movies including one of the Psycho movies and another only 16 years ago.

So yeah definately a money grab.
She wasn't 15 in those other movies.
 
CSB time...

We watched this version over two days after we had finished getting assigned parts and reading the play aloud. At the beginning of class on both days Mrs. Jones made it very clear that there was brief nudity and that we were to behave in a mature manner when it came on. As day two was winding down and the star-crossed lovers were finally able to be together and consummate the secret marriage the infamous scene arrives. Everybody in the classroom was calm and prepared to let it pass without incident, but fate put notorious troublemaker and filter-less super senior Peter Jones in the hallway at the exact right time. He peered into the little window and let out a noise that I imagine sounded very similar to fabled 'rebel-yell'.

All control went out the window and we watched the rest of the movie with a piece of hastily taped construction paper over the window.
She showed it to us too, but as you know, I’m older than you, so we had to watch it on filmstrip (jk).
 
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