The lead actors in 1968’s Romeo and Juliet have refiled a lawsuit against the studios, claiming they never agreed to the redistribution of their nude scenes.
Olivia Hussey, 72, and Leonard Whiting, 73, filed a new lawsuit yesterday against Paramount Pictures and domestic distribution company Criterion Collections.
British actors have accused studios of illegally distributing nude images of them, which appear in Criterion’s digital release of director Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version of Shakespeare’s play.
The couple said they had never agreed to the redistribution of their nude scenes in any format.
The couple had previously filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica Superior Court in California accusing Paramount Pictures of sexual harassment, fraud, sexual abuse and intentional infliction of emotional distress in January 2023.
Olivia Hussey, 72, and Leonard Whiting, 73, filed a new lawsuit yesterday against Paramount Pictures and domestic distribution company Criterion Collections (pictured in 2018).
British actors have accused studios of illegally distributing nude images of them, which appear in Criterion’s digital release of director Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 version of Shakespeare’s play.
The 2024 lawsuit claims Hussey and Whiting are suing for “unlawful distribution of intimate photographs, unlawful use of images, and violation of performers’ rights.”
The photographs cited in this lawsuit are from the scene in which Hussey, then 15, and Whiting, then 16, appear naked in a bedroom like the titular star-crossed lovers.
The duo claim that following Criterion’s high-definition rendering of the film for its digital release, Hussey’s bare breasts and Whiting’s bare butt have now become fully visible in the film, something that was not so evident in the original version of the film.
Hussey and Whiting have claimed that the scenes in the digital release are “lewd, lascivious and degrading to them.”
The photographs cited in this lawsuit are of the scene in which Hussey, then 15, and Whiting, then 16, naked in a bedroom like the titular star-crossed lovers.
The court documents read: ‘The digital publication contained, among other things, computer-created, digitally enhanced photographs of Whiting and Hussey lying together, naked in a bed, simulating a newlywed couple enjoying luxury after a session of conjugal intercourse. It also contained computer-generated and digitally enhanced photographs of the areolas and nipples of Hussey’s naked breasts.
“Among other things, the digital photographs presented, in extremely high-definition detail, the content of several analog color photographs taken in the private studio in the presence of only key photography personnel while Hussey and Whiting were minors during the production of the original project depicting Hussey’s completely naked breasts and Whiting’s completely naked buttocks.
‘When they first saw the digital publication, after the dismissal of the litigation and the ruling on that dismissal, both Whiting and Hussey realized that the blacked-out depiction of their bare buttocks and breasts in publicly distributed copies of the La Original Work had been digitally enhanced in such a way that, unlike the Original Work, the Digital Publication showed their private areas in such detail that the free display was lewd, lascivious and degrading to them.
“Neither Hussey nor Whiting have consented to or agreed to the creation, publication or distribution of the digital photographs in the digital version.”
The duo claim that following Criterion’s high-definition rendering of the film for its digital release, Hussey’s bare breasts and Whiting’s bare butt have now become fully visible in the film, something that was not so evident in the original version of the film.
Hussey and Whiting have claimed that the scenes in the digital release are “lewd, lascivious and degrading to them.”
Hussey and Whiting are seeking damages in a “sum, upon the evidence, adequate to compensate Hussey and Whiting for their economic and general damages,” as well as a permanent block on distribution of the digital release.
Hussey and Whiting had claimed in last year’s lawsuit that Zeffirelli had originally told them there would be no nudity in the film.
However, on the last day of filming, they said Zeffirelli claimed the film would “fail” unless they performed a scene naked and wearing body makeup.
In May 2023, Superior Court Judge Alison Mackenzie dismissed his initial lawsuit.
In a recently released joint statement, both actors said: “We and our new attorneys extended the olive branch to Paramount in hopes that they would resolve this legal matter, but unfortunately, it appears that they do not want to take responsibility for their part in the improvement digital, production and distribution of the 1968 film nor for the photographs included in that reproduction that were taken fraudulently and surreptitiously.’
Hussey and Whiting are seeking damages in a “sum, upon the evidence, that is adequate to compensate Hussey and Whiting for their economic and general damages,” as well as a permanent block on distribution of the digital version.
A hearing date for the new lawsuit has not yet been set.