Photo: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alison Mackenzie said Thursday she would
dismiss Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting’s lawsuit against Paramount alleging sexual exploitation and distribution of nude images of minors, according to . The couple accused the late director Franco Zeffirelli of pressuring them to appear nude in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet – Whiting’s buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts are on display – despite initial reassurances that the underage teenagers were wearing flesh-colored clothing should. The $500 million lawsuit also alleges that some of the nudity in the final cut was filmed without her knowledge or consent. Hussey and Whiting say they continued to suffer mental and physical distress as a result of the incident.
Mackenzie’s preliminary ruling stated that the scene in question was not “sexually suggestive enough” to be considered illegal and that distribution by Paramount was protected by the First Amendment. Hussey and Whiting’s attorney, Solomon Gresen, is reportedly planning to appeal. He said he doesn’t believe there is constitutional protection for nude images of minor children in films and plans to file a new complaint in California federal court based on a 4K restoration of the film, released in February 2023. (Gresen argued, “We’ve waited 55 years for justice,” Hussey and Whiting said in a joint statement. “I guess we’ll have to wait longer.”