Wed Jan 4, 2023 – 4:20 pm EST
(LifeSiteNews) — The stars of the 1968 blockbuster Romeo and Juliet, which earned director Franco Zeffirelli an Academy Award nomination for best director, are suing Paramount Pictures for damages “believed to be in excess of $500 million.”
According to Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting — now aged 71 and 72, respectively — Zeffirelli’s actions on set constituted sexual harassment, fraud, abuse, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit has been filed in Santa Monica Superior Court.
Hussey and Whiting were just 15 and 16 years old when they were told, on the very last day of filming, that the movie they’d been hired to star in “would fail” if they refused to perform a nude scene — after being promised by the director that no such scenes would be required.
When pushed, however, they assumed they had no choice in the matter. Still, the actors allege that the director assured them that the camera would be placed strategically and that no actual nudity would be recorded or released. Hussey and Whiting are claiming they were recorded without their knowledge.
“What they were told and what
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