'Romeo and Juliet' stars' second lawsuit over nude scene dismissed
A judge dismissed the 1968 Romeo and Juliet stars' second lawsuit over its bedroom scene, as they apparently consented to it.
Multiple outlets, including Variety, reported that Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, then 16 and 17, sued Paramount in December 2022, alleging that director Franco Zeffirelli tricked them into appearing in the nude.
The scene includes a lingering shot of Whiting's bare buttocks and a glimpse of Hussey's naked breasts.
They argued that it was equal to “child pornography.”
They were claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, saying they have suffered mental anguish and emotional distress in the five-and-a-half decades since the film came out, and that both had only limited professional success in its wake.
It was junked in May 2023 partly because of the statute of limitations, or the maximum time that parties may initiate legal proceedings from the alleged offense's date.
Judge Alison Mackenzie also found that the scene isn't “sufficiently sexually suggestive” to meet the definition of child pornography.
Hussey and Whiting filed a new lawsuit last February, arguing that the Criterion Collection's re-release in 2023, with a digital restoration, triggered a new statute of limitations.
They filed the lawsuit under state and federal laws intended to combat "revenge pornography," which prohibits the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
Judge Holly Fujie dismissed the claim, saying the re-release isn't different enough to warrant revisiting the earlier ruling.
“A comparison of the 2023 release with the prior versions shows no significant visible improvement in the film, particularly in the bedroom scene, to the naked eye,” Fujie is quoted as saying.
Fujie noted that the producers had contracts with Hussey and Whiting, which means they consented to participate in the film.
Even in the absence of their "express consent," the judge argued that their subsequent conduct in the decades since the film's original 1968 release speaks to their "implied ratification and approval of the film," including the bedroom scene.
“This includes, among others, appearances and statements made by plaintiffs during interviews and attendance at film festivals," Fujie said, "during which plaintiffs did not object to the continuing release and distribution of the successive releases of the film.”
In an interview with Variety last year, Hussey said she and Whiting were only paid 1,500 pounds (P112,000) each for the performance. Their acting careers didn't prosper afterward.
In interviews for years after the film's release, Hussey and Whiting defended the film—and the nude scene.
But Hussey told Variety she was putting up a front about it, and that it was traumatizing.
The 1968 Romeo and Juliet got four Academy Award nominations and won two for cinematography and costume design.
Hussey and Whiting won Golden Globe Awards for Most Promising Newcomers.