Romeo and Juliet Actors Sue Paramount for Child Sexual Exploitation

Hussey and Whiting, who were 15 and 16 at the time of the film, accused director Franco Zeffirelli of lying to them and exposing them to the nudity.

Reproduction / Paramount
Hussey and Whiting were teenagers when they starred in Franco Zeffirelli’s feature film

actress Olivia Hussey And the actor Leonard Whiting He sued the movie studios Basic For pedophile because of a nude scene in the movie”Romeo and Juliet’, from 1968, when they were both teenagers. The Journal.”diverseIt was announced that the stars of the film directed by Franco Zeffirelli (1923-2019) have filed a lawsuit with the Santa Monica Superior Court, accusing Paramount of sexually exploiting them and publishing pictures of naked teenage girls. The lawsuit alleges that the film’s director promised the actors that the film would not feature nudity, and instead, they would wear underwear the color of their skin in a bed scene required for the narration. According to the artists, days before filming, Zeffirelli begged Hussey, then 15, and Whiting, 16, to work nude with body make-up, or the film would fail, and vowed not to film or publish any nudity, breaking the same promise. . Actors take damage in excess of US$ 500 million (2,740 million R$) The allegation is that since the film’s release both have been affected emotionally and have limited employment opportunities as a result. “Nude photos of minors are illegal and should not be shown,” the actors’ attorney, Solomon Greesen, told Variety. The suit was brought under the Child Victims Act Californiawhich allows child sexual abuse survivors to file civil lawsuits and temporarily lifts the statute of limitations on longstanding child sexual abuse allegations.

* With information from EFE