Movie
The stars of Franco Zeffirelli’s Oscar-winning film have lost their fight for damages over a sex scene they filmed as teenagers
Thu 25 May 2023 at 9:10pm BST
A California judge has signaled she will dismiss a child molestation lawsuit brought by the two leads in the 1968 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
Last December, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who were teenagers when they made Franco Zeffirelli’s Oscar-winning film, accused Paramount of sexual exploitation over a nude scene they claimed insisted on after they were told it was would not take place.
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This week, Judge Alison Mackenzie proposed siding with the studio in a preliminary ruling, dismissing claims that the film contained images of child abuse.
Mackenzie wrote that there was no convincing argument that the film was “sexually suggestive enough from a legal point of view to be held definitively unlawful” and that the plaintiffs “picked language from federal and state laws without any authority.” to offer in terms of interpretation or interpretation.” Application of these legal provisions to allegedly artistic works”.
The actors, who were both under the age of 18 at the time, reportedly plan to appeal and file a separate lawsuit relating to the film’s recent Criterion DVD release, which would not be affected by the statute of limitations. “Children cannot consent to the use of these images,” said the couple’s attorney, Solomon Gressen. “You benefit from these images without consent.”
He called them “very young naive kids in the 1960s who didn’t know what was about to hit them”.
Both actors issued statements claiming they “pretended we were having intercourse” and had “suffered mental anguish and emotional distress” over the past few years and have been denied job opportunities. They were reportedly seeking $100 million in damages.
Paramount called her memoirs “completely false and perjury statements.”
“We have waited for justice for 55 years,” the actors said in a statement. “I guess we’ll have to wait longer.”
Zeffirelli died in 2019 and earlier that year his son Pippo Zeffirelli, who is also president of the Franco Zeffirelli Foundation, criticized the lawsuit, saying the scene was “anything but pornographic”.
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