Just when the #MeToo movement looked to be getting marginalised in just the way activists had feared, a new frontier has opened up – history.
Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, who as teens starred in Franco Zeffirelli’s movie version of Romeo and Juliet in 1968, are suing Paramount for more than $500m for child abuse in the semi-nude scene they say they were made to do, having originally been assured by the director that this would not be necessary. This was act three, scene five – in which the star crossed, loved-up hero and heroine awake after their (secret) wedding night.
To a modern eye, it looks pretty tame: Romeo is naked face down and Zeffirelli’s camera lingers on his buttocks – Juliet has the sheet pulled up almost to her shoulders but her breasts are briefly revealed towards the end of the scene.
