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A second lawsuit surrounding the bedroom scene in 1968’s “Romeo and Juliet” has been dismissed by a judge, according to court documents reviewed by TheWrap.

Actors Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey – who played the titular characters and were 17 and 16 at the time – filed a suit in 2022 alleging director Franco Zefforelli tricked them into being nude for the film’s bedroom scene. That lawsuit was thrown out out in May 2023, partly due to being past statute of limitations. A second suit, filed in February 2024, has now been dismissed.

The newer filing came after Whiting and Hussey argued the 2023 Criterion Collection re-release of the film negated those statue of limitations issues. Judge Holly J. Fujie ruled the re-release wasn’t grounds enough for a new suit and also found that the actors consented to their appearance in the film’s scenes.

“A comparison of the 2023 release with the prior versions shows no...

A judge on Monday dismissed a second lawsuit over the bedroom scene in the 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” finding that the lead actors consented to their appearance in the film.

Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were 16 and 17 at the time of filming. They first sued Paramount in December 2022, alleging that they were duped by director Franco Zeffirelli into appearing in the nude. The scene includes a lingering shot of Whiting’s bare buttocks and a glimpse of Hussey’s naked breasts.

The original lawsuit was thrown out in May 2023, partly on statute of limitations grounds. The actors filed a new lawsuit in February 2024, arguing that the 2023 Criterion re-release, with a digital restoration, triggered a new statute of limitations

Judge Holly J. Fujie dismissed that claim on Monday, finding that the re-release is not different enough to warrant revisiting the earlier ruling.

“A comparison of the 2023 release with the...

A judge has put a dagger in the heart of the lawsuit involving the stars of 1968’s Romeo and Juliet, siding with Paramount Pictures in deciding that its use of underage nudity actually falls under the First Amendment and that the stars “had not complied with the provisions of a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims.”

In her statement regarding her decision in the Romeo and Juliet lawsuit, judge Alison Mackenzie said, “Plaintiffs have not put forth any authority showing the film here can be deemed to be sufficiently sexually suggestive as a matter of law to be held to be conclusively illegal…Plaintiffs’ argument on the subject is limited to cherry-picked language from federal and state statutes without offering any authority regarding the interpretation or application of those statutory provisions to purported works of artistic merit, such as the award-winning film at issue here.

Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the then-underage stars of Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, had their lawsuit against Paramount Pictures over a nude scene thrown out.

As Variety reports, the lawsuit that argued filming a nude scene with the teenage actors constituted child pornography was dismissed by Judge Alison Mackenzie, granting a request from Paramount. The judge cited the First Amendment as one reason behind her decision. She also found that the plaintiffs had failed to comply with the provisions of a California law temporarily suspending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims.

Related: Top Gun Lawsuit Moves Forward As Paramount Loses Motion to Dismiss

Romeo & Juliet Lawsuit Claims Unlawful Child Nudity

The lawsuit filed in December 2022 claimed that Hussey and Whiting were coerced to film in the nude by director Zeffirelli, who allegedly told them earlier nudity was not required and the...

Los Angeles County judge Alison Mackenzie confirmed she would grant Paramount Pictures’ motion to throw out a lawsuit over a nude scene in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, citing the First Amendment.

Earlier this year, lead actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting sued Paramount for sexual exploitation and child abuse over the use of nude footage in the movie, which was captured when they were 15 and 16, respectively. In the suit, the actors claimed that their consent was violated by the film’s director Franco Zeffirelli, who died in 2019.

In January...

A judge has granted Paramount Pictures’ motion for dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the stars of a 1968 film adaptation of “Romeo & Juliet” who claim they were coerced by director Franco Zeffirelli into performing a nude scene as teenagers.

In a tentative ruling filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Alison Mackenzie ruled that the plaintiffs’ case did not sufficiently prove that the nude scene amounted to “child pornography” and therefore overrode the film’s First Amendment protections as an artistic work. While a new California law lifted the statute of limitations on child sex abuse claims, the judge said that the plaintiffs did not comply with the provisions required for such claims under that law.

In a statement sent to TheWrap, Hussey and Whiting’s attorney Solomon Gresen is looking into a potential appeal of the case and is also planning to...

“Thus with a kiss I die,” wrote William Shakespeare in Romeo & Juliet, and thus echoed a Los Angeles judge today over the alleged sexual abuse and negligence lawsuit from the stars of Franco Zeffirelli Oscar-nominated 1968 adaptation of the doomed lovers play.

Stating that the $100 million in damages action against Paramount Pictures from Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting contains a “gross mischaracterization” of the bedroom scenes in question from the film and citing the First Amendment, Judge Alison Mackenzie put forth a tentative ruling to dismiss the case.

“Defendant’s special motion to strike Plaintiffs’ entire Complaint …is Granted as each cause of action asserted therein arises from protected activity and Plaintiffs have failed to show a probability of success on the merits of those claims,” she wrote Thursday of Paramount’s (successful) attempt to have the matter tossed under California’s anti-slapp laws.

Simultaneously, making short work of the...

A lawsuit over a nude scene in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet is protected by the First Amendment, a judge has ruled. In January, it had been reported that the stars of the movie, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, filed a lawsuit against Paramount because of a scene that featured the two of them nude in a bedroom together. At the time of filming, Hussey was 15 and Whiting was 16, and they argued in their lawsuit that they couldn't have legally consented to appearing nude on film. The complaint alleged that director Franco Zeffirelli and the studio had coerced the teen actors into filming the scene, and for mental anguish and negative impacts to their careers, the two wanted no less than $500 million.

On Thursday, per Variety, it was reported that Judge Alison Mackenzie has granted Paramount's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The studio had sought to have the suit tossed under California's anti-slapp statute.

Paramount won’t have to face a lawsuit accusing the studio of sexual abuse over a nude scene in the 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alison Mackenzie signaled on Thursday that she’ll dismiss the suit, finding claims that the movie depicts sexual acts are a “gross mischaracterization” of the scene. She said in a tentative ruling that the claims “arise from protected activity” under the First Amendment.

Actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, 16 and 17 respectively when the film was shot, starred in the movie directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The suit seeking $500 million, which was filed under a California law that suspends the window to file a complaint for childhood sexual assault, revolves around a bedroom scene that briefly shows Whiting’s buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts. The actors accused Zeffirelli of pressuring them into performing nude scenes despite previously telling them that they...

A judge on Thursday said she will throw out a lawsuit over a nude scene in the 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” after finding that the film is protected by the First Amendment.

The stars of the film, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, filed the suit in December, alleging that they were coerced by director Franco Zeffirelli into performing nude in the film’s bedroom scene. Hussey was 16 at the time of filming; Whiting was 17.

Judge Alison Mackenzie granted Paramount’s motion to throw out the suit, finding that the plaintiffs had not complied with the provisions of a California law that temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims.

Mackenzie also rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the nude scene amounted to “child pornography.”

“Plaintiffs have not put forth any authority showing the film here can be deemed to be sufficiently sexually suggestive as a matter of...