'Romeo and Juliet' stars who claim 'child pornography' have lawsuit dismissed

A second lawsuit submitted by the stars of Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation Romeo and Juliet was dismissed in a California courtroom on Monday after a judge said she found no difference between a 2023 Criterion re-release of the film on Blu-ray and older versions of the film that were the subject of an earlier lawsuit that was dismissed last year became.

In her new ruling that the recent claims were “meritless,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Holly J. Fujie rejected actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting's claim that the 2023 re-release had been digitally enhanced at such high resolution was that she had become the linchpin. In the famous “bedroom scene,” filmed when Hussey was 16 and Whiting 17, there was another misappropriation of her likeness that was not covered by the dismissal of the earlier lawsuit. The scene in question shows Whiting and Hussey in the role of Romeo and Juliet, lying in bed together, speaking several lines and kissing. Whiting's bare buttocks and Hussey's bare breasts, including her nipples and areolas, are briefly seen.

In a statement to the court signed in July, Hussey said she viewed the scene as “sexual abuse of minors” and “child pornography.” She also said she believes Paramount “engineered” the Blu-ray release “to embarrass her in retaliation for her participation in the previous lawsuit.”

“Plaintiffs’ attempt to distinguish the 2023 release from the prior releases is baseless,” Judge Fujie wrote in her ruling on Monday. “Comparing the 2023 release with the previous versions, to the naked eye, there is no significant visible improvement in the film, particularly in the bedroom scene. The lack of discernible distinction negates plaintiffs’ claim.”

In her July statement to the court, Hussey claimed that she never consented to being filmed nude during the filming of the film in Italy more than 50 years ago, and that she was only admitted to a state after Zeffirelli “cut.” ” shouted to undress while engaging in “frivolities” with Whiting that were intended to “reduce the tension while filming the scene.” She claims she later gave Zeffirelli permission to use images from “post-performance frivolity” because she considered him an “artistic genius.” She says the permission was not extended to defendants Paramount Pictures, Criterion Collections and Janus Films after Zeffirelli's death in June 2019.

“When I subsequently confirmed (the 2023 Blu-ray release) and that the release had been enhanced to make these photos appear more like lewd and lascivious behavior than an intimate love scene, I became angry and terribly embarrassed. Hussey wrote in her affidavit. “I knew that Franco Zeffirelli had passed away in mid-2019 – much to my great regret, given my close relationship with him over the years – so he could not authorize the publication of these photos with the remake of his masterpiece.”

In their successful motion to dismiss the latest lawsuit, lawyers for Paramount, Criterion and Janus called it “manifestly absurd” that Hussey claimed that the bedroom scene in the film was largely filmed after Zeffirelli yelled “cut.” “The scene in question depicts the two actors performing in front of the camera while reciting, word for word, Shakespeare's immortal text that accompanies the scene,” the lawyers wrote. They also attacked the theory that the Criterion release exceeded the resolution of previous iterations of the film, calling this claim “simply false”.

“The Criterion release is actually a poorer picture quality of the film than the 1968 theatrical release; a lower resolution than the digitally restored 4K film that plaintiffs saw and applauded at a public film festival in 2016; and the same resolution as the film that has been widely distributed on television and digital since 2007 or earlier,” the lawyers wrote. “None of Plaintiffs’ sham attempts to re-describe what happened on the 1967 set or their conduct since then saves this lawsuit from the fate of the previous lawsuit.”

Asked about that claim after the hearing, Hussey's attorney, William Romaine, said Rolling Stone that his client was more concerned with the alleged manipulation of the original film. “If you look at the original, the photography of her breasts is very concrete and clear. In the Criterion release, the way they did the lighting is manipulated, it's startling, as if someone is shining a spotlight directly on her nipple, as if someone is really trying to highlight her breast. When she saw this, she found it really offensive. She felt it made the entire film offensive. She felt that if Zeffirelli were still alive, he would never have allowed this to happen.” Romaine said he would recommend his clients appeal the dismissal. “We believe the court made a mistake,” he said.

It was a different judge who issued the ruling in May 2023 that dismissed Hussey and Whiting's first lawsuit in 2022. The actors' challenge to this ruling was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on April 15, 2024.

“Plaintiffs have presented no evidence that the film herein can be legally viewed as sufficiently sexually suggestive to be deemed conclusively unlawful,” former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Alison MacKenzie wrote in her Letter decision dismissing the first lawsuit last year. “Plaintiffs’ argument on this issue is limited to select language from federal and state statutes, without providing any authority regarding the interpretation or application of those statutory provisions to purportedly artistic works such as the award-winning film at issue.”

In her ruling, Mackenzie cited appeals court precedent that said child pornography is “particularly repulsive” but “not all images of naked children are pornographic.”

Paramount's lawyers had no comment following Monday's ruling.