Franco Zeffirelli’s son hits back at Romeo and Juliet stars over nudity lawsuit

Lawsuit filed against Paramount accuses the production of sexual harassment and abuse over the scenes from the 1968 film

Franco Zeffirelli’s son Pippo has hit out at the sexual exploitation lawsuit filed by Romeo and Juliet actors Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey.

The lawsuit filed against Paramount accuses the production company of sexual harassment, fraud, sexual abuse, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It stems from a Romeo and Juliet nude scene involving Whiting and Hussey, allegedly filmed while they were minors.

The complaint also alleges that late director Franco told the lead actors that the 1968 film wouldn’t include nudity, but ended up going back on his word.

In an interview with The Guardian, Zeffirelli’s son Pippo called the lawsuit “embarrassing” and said that the nude scene at the center of the complaint is “far from pornographic”.

“It is embarrassing to hear that today, 55 years after filming, two elderly actors who owe their notoriety essentially to this film wake up to declare that they have suffered an abuse that has caused them years of anxiety and emotional discomfort,” he told the publication.

Pippo said he believed the film’s producers, John Brabourne and Anthony Havelock-Allan, obtained consent forms from the actor’s parents before filming.

“[Franco] Zeffirelli himself was accused of being reactionary precisely because, over and over again, he spoke out against pornography,” he said.

“The nude images in the film express the beauty, the transfer, I would even say the candor of mutual giving and do not contain any morbid feeling.”

Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey at the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival (Getty Images)

Earlier this year, Whiting and Hussey’s business manager Tony Marinozzi said: “What they were told and what went on were two different things.

“They trusted Franco. At 16, as actors, they took his lead that he would not violate that trust they had. Franco was their friend, and frankly, at 16, what do they do?” Marinozzi added in a statement to the outlet. “There are no options. There was no #MeToo.”

Hussey and Whiting’s attorney Solomon Gresen added: “[The actors] were very young naive children in the Sixties 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.”

If you are a child and you need help because something has happened to you, you can call the NSPCC free of charge on 0800 1111. You can also call the NSPCC if you are an adult and you are worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adults on 0808 801 0331.