Nolte: 143-Year-Old Romeo and Juliet Want $500M for Showing Skin

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, who are collectively 143 years old, are suing Paramount Pictures over the alleged trauma they’ve dealt with since filming Romeo and Juliet 55 years ago.

The film’s director, Franco Zeffirelli, died in 2019, so Hussey and Whiting can’t sue him.

Hussey and Whiting’s parents — the people truly responsible — are likely dead, so there’s no way to sue them.

That leaves the cash cow Paramount Pictures.

I can’t figure out if this is a pathetic cash grab or a cynical way to promote Criterion’s upcoming Blu-ray release of the film.

Here are the details:

Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, allegedly told the two young actors that they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in the bedroom scene and would use camera angles to obscure the nudity, the suit alleges.

…

Whiting, who played Romeo, and Hussey, who played Juliet, said they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge, in violation of California and federal laws against indecency and the exploitation of children, the suit says.

The two stars said Zeffirelli told them they must act in the nude “or the Picture would fail,” the suit said. He also suggested their careers would be hurt, it added. So, the actors “believed they had no choice but to act in the nude in body makeup as demanded,” the suit said.

Hussey was 15 at the time. We briefly see her bare breasts. Whiting was either 16 or 17. We briefly see his bare bottom.

Back in the day, when America wasn’t so uptight and moralistic, this kind of thing was not unheard of. Ten years later, in 1978, Brooke Shields became a star at age 12 in Pretty Baby, where she appeared nude as a child prostitute. The great Louise Malle directed. Keith Carradine (who kissed Shields) and Susan Sarandon co-starred.

I’m not unhappy morals are changing to a point where this would not be acceptable today. But, at the same time, I’ve seen both films, and both are works of art, not pornographic or exploitative. Brooke Shields has never said anything negative about her Pretty Baby experience, and until 71-year-old Hussey went for the brass ring this week, she has always defended the nudity in Romeo and Juliet.

“I think because it was done very tastefully,” Hussey told Fox News four years ago. “And in Europe, it was very different. In America, it was very taboo. But in Europe, a lot of the films had nudity. Nobody really thought much of it.”

That’s an important distinction. The movie wasn’t filmed in America. It was filmed in Rome. If memory serves, it was supposed to be a local television production until Paramount signed on. Also, the age of consent in Italy is 14. It might have been higher in 1968, but I see no record of that.

Hussey added, “But it was just the fact that I was 16 that got a lot of publicity… The large crew we worked with was whittled down to only the very basic people, a handful of people. It was done later in the day when it wasn’t busy. It was a closed set.”

Finally, does this sound like someone who’s been traumatized for 50 years? “And we shot it at the very end of the film. So by that time,” Hussey said, “we’ve all become a big family… It wasn’t that big of a deal. And Leonard wasn’t shy at all! In the middle of shooting, I just completely forgot I didn’t have clothes on.”

But now Hussey and Whiting have hired an attorney who’s saying this…

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.

I remember seeing this in my high school English class. Actually, the only thing I remember is the teacher shadowing the screen with his hand during the nude scenes. Jerk.

The question now is, what will Criterion do? Will they pull the February 14 Blu-ray release?

Just to be clear, because this is a tricky issue… I’m not okay with filming underage boys and girls in the nude. At the same time, I’m an adult who understands the world was a very different place in 1968; Italy is not America and has a right to its own consent laws, there’s a difference between tasteful and exploitive nudity, and art should never-ever-ever be censored.

As far as this lawsuit… This is what happens when a stupid state such as California stupidly suspends the statute of limitations. If there was true trauma and exploitation, it should have been litigated at the time. But now that the cynical act of claiming you were traumatized has become fashionable, here we go.

Yeah, they’ve been traumatized for so long that in 2016 both attended a Los Angeles screening of the film…

I’m no trauma expert, but watching them gush over Zeffirelli in this video as “loveable” and an “inspiration” might undermine their case.

On Hussey’s own website, it reads, “We invite you to join Olivia and Leonard to celebrate and warmly reflect on their 50-plus years of friendship and the magical ‘Romeo and Juliet’ experience.”

“Magical … experience?”

And now they want to sully all of that, Zeffirelli (who cannot defend himself) and their own legacy, for a few bucks.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.