Paramount Pictures won a round in court Monday when a judge ordered dismissed on free-speech grounds a renewed lawsuit by the then-teenage stars of the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” in which the plaintiffs said they were duped into appearing partially nude in one of the movie’s scenes.
The updated case, filed Feb. 12 in Los Angeles Superior Court by Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, alleged unlawful use of intimate photos and likeness and violation of the Performers Rights Act of the United Kingdom, and focused on the release of the film’s digital photos.
The previous suit alleged sexual harassment, childhood sexual abuse, fraud, negligence, infliction of emotional distress and other violations, and it was dismissed by a judge in May 2023.
In an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) motion filed in May with Judge Holly J. Fujie, Paramount Pictures attorneys stated that the entire case should be dismissed on First Amendment and other grounds. The judge ruled in the studio’s favor on Monday, saying it was too late for the plaintiffs to argue non-consent.
“Even in the absence of express consent, however, plaintiffs subsequent conduct in the decades that followed since the film’s original 1968 release speaks to plaintiffs’ implied ratification and approval of the film, including the bedroom scene,” the judge wrote. “This includes … appearances and statements made by plaintiffs during interviews and attendance at film festivals, during which plaintiffs did not object to the continuing release and distribution of the successive releases of the film.”
The studio lawyers maintained the issues previously decided could not be relitigated. They also argued that Hussey and Whiting attended post-2016 screenings of the film and were asked about the bedroom scene.
“Time after time, plaintiffs maintained the bedroom scene was tastefully done, needed for the film and shot with the utmost level of professionalism and care,” the Paramount attorneys further stated.
The state’s anti-SLAPP law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
According to the earlier lawsuit, Whiting was 16 years old when he played Romeo in the film, opposite Juliet portrayed by Hussey, who was 15 at the time. The first complaint further stated that the two actors were told by the film’s director, Franco Zeffirelli, “that there would be no nudity filmed or exhibited, and that plaintiffs would be wearing flesh-colored undergarments during the bedroom/love scene.”
Paramount attorneys maintain in their court papers that the lawsuit was “notably” filed after Zeffirelli’s death in June 2019 at age 96.
At the time the first suit was drafted, neither actor knew that Paramount and Janus Films LLC, through its subsidiary Criterion Collections Inc. — both of which are co-defendants in the suit and also state in court papers that the case should be dismissed — intended to release and distribute the release containing digital photos which “depicted their private areas in such high detail that the gratuitous display was lewd and lascivious and demeaning to them,” the revised suit stated.
“Hussey and Whiting thereby became concerned that the digital release containing the digital photos could wreak havoc upon their professional reputations and subject them to critical obloquy and professional ridicule and contempt,” the current suit stated.
Paramount maintains Whiting and Hussey “have irrevocably consented to Paramount’s absolute right to use and license the use of those original photos in any manner it sees fit,” the new complaint stated.
Whiting is now 74 years old and Hussey is 73.
“Romeo and Juliet” won Oscars for cinematography and costume design. The film was nominated for best picture and best director for Zeffirelli.