Olivia Hussey was 15 years old and Leonard Whiting was 16 years old when they featured in the Academy Award-winning adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy.
The actors, both now in their 70’s, clearly said that several scenes depict sexual violation by this studio paramount. The film is guilty of sharing nude pictures of juveniles. The suit claimed that the defendants were dishonest and covertly videotaped the nude or partially naked young children without their knowledge, in violation of state and federal statutes prohibiting indecency and exploitation of minors for profit.
Profit is something that shouldn’t be gained at expense of someone’s personal life. The lawyer of these actors gave the statement that it is indeed very disturbing for the actors to even express their grievances to me. The case, which seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, argues that the two actors have experienced mental agony and emotional suffering in the five-and-a-half decades since the film’s release and that both have had only limited career success as a result.
‘(Paramount) have images that they know are images of underage nudity that should be removed from the film. That would be the beginning for sure,’ he said. ‘Sexually explicit images of children are bad and they shouldn’t be tolerated. ‘If they were under 16, then they’re under 16. It’s a sexually explicit image of an underage person, it should be forbidden.’
The deadline for filing historical child sex abuse lawsuits in California under a temporary waiver of the statutes of limitation was December 31.
Paramount did not respond immediately to AFP’s request for comment. According to Variety, Hussey defended the naked scene, which she thought Zeffirelli had done elegantly, in a 2018 interview. “It was needed for the film,” she told the outlet at the time.
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