Olivia Hussey And Leonard Whiting Of 1968’s “Romeo & Juliet” Have Filed A Sexual Exploitation And Child Abuse Lawsuit Over A Teenage Nude Scene In The Movie

For some of us, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968’s film version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, is forever burned into our brains because we had to watch it in junior high school or high school. And I can still hear the ESCANDALOSO gasps from the other kids over the sight of Romeo’s bare ass and Juliet’s boobs. I didn’t find out until years later that Olivia and Leonard were minors when they filmed the movie. Well, now, according to Olivia and Leonard, the nude scene should’ve never seen the light of scandalized 8th-grader eyes. Together, they have filed a $500 million lawsuit against Paramount Pictures for exploiting them as minors and for distributing child porn.

Variety says that Olivia and Leonard’s lawsuit was filed under a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases, and that led to the filing of many lawsuits. The deadline to file was December 31, 2022, and Olivia and Leonard’s lawsuit made it in at the last minute. They filed on December 30th. 71-year-old Olivia and 72-year-old Leonard state in their lawsuit that she was 15 and he was 16 at the time. They claim that before they filmed the bedroom scene for the movie, Franco Zeffirelli, who died at 96 in 2019, let them know that they could wear flesh-colored undergarments to cover their parts and that there would be no nudity in the movie. But on the morning of the shoot, they say that Zeffirelli burped up a different tune, and that tune sounded a lot like PedoBear’s whistling. They claim that Zeffirelli urged them to do the scene nude and with body makeup, or the “picture would fail.” So they did it, but again, they allege that Zeffirelli vowed that their naked bodies wouldn’t be in the movie and that he was pulling trickery on them at the time.

According to the complaint, Zeffirelli showed them where the camera would be positioned, and assured them that no nudity would be photographed or released in the film. The suit alleges that he was being dishonest and that Whiting and Hussey were in fact filmed nude without their knowledge.

“What they were told and what went on were two different things,” said Tony Marinozzi, who is a business manager for both actors. “They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do? There are no options. There was no #MeToo.”

Olivia and Leonard’s attorney, Solomon Gresen, added this about the lawsuit:

“Nude images of minors are unlawful and shouldn’t be exhibited. These were very young naive children in the ’60s who had no understanding of what was about to hit them. All of a sudden they were famous at a level they never expected, and in addition they were violated in a way they didn’t know how to deal with.”

Since the movie came out 55 years ago, Olivia and Leonard say that they have suffered mental and emotional stress because of the scene and that their careers took a hit despite the movie’s success. It was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. Olivia and Leonard are asking for damages “believed to be in excess of $500 million.”

This lawsuit is making some think about The Blue Lagoon since it’s got partial nudity in it, and Brooke Shields was only 14 when she shot the movie. Brooke recently talked about the nudity in the movie and said that shit would never get made today. Olivia Hussey has also talked about the nudity in Romeo and Juliet before. During an interview with Variety for the film’s 50th anniversary in 2018, Olivia said that the nude scene was shot “tastefully,” and she felt “it was needed for the film.”

Well, here I was thinking that the worst thing that came out of 1968’s Romeo and Juliet was the interpretive dance I did to the movie’s iconic theme song during a drama club talent show in the 9th grade. I was obviously very wrong.

Pic: Hulton Archive/Getty Images