ヌードシーンが児童虐待、１９６８年『ロミオとジュリエット』で製作会社訴え

【ロサンゼルスＡＦＰ＝時事】１９６８年の映画『ロミオとジュリエット』でのヌードシーンが児童虐待に当たるとして、俳優のオリビア・ハッセーさんとレナード・ホワイティングさんが先週、米製作会社パラマウント・ピクチャーズを訴えた。二人の弁護士が３日、明らかにした。（写真はハッセーさんとホワイティングさん。２０１８年のＴＣＭクラシック映画祭で）
　フランコ・ゼフィレッリ監督（２０１９年に死去）の同作品で悲劇の恋人を演じた当時、ハッセーさんは１５歳、ホワイティングさんは１６歳だった。
　米カリフォルニア州サンタモニカの裁判所に先週提出された訴状によると、現在７０代の２人は、裸の臀部や胸の一部が見える寝室でのシーンは性的搾取であり、児童ポルノ画像配布に当たると主張している。
　ゼフィレッリ監督からは当初、実際に裸になることはなく肌色の下着を着用してもらうと説明されたが、後にヌードなしでは「映画が失敗する」と言って説得されたという。
　２人は映画公開から５０年以上にわたって精神的苦痛を受け、その結果、俳優としての仕事が限定されたとして数億ドル（数百億円）の損害賠償を請求している。
　ＡＦＰの取材に対し、パラマウント・ピクチャーズからの回答はこれまでない。
　ハッセーさんは２０１８年、米娯楽誌バラエティのインタビューでこのヌードシーンについて「映画にとって必要だった」と述べ、ゼフィレッリ監督を擁護していた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/01/04-17:16）

The actors who played star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film are suing Paramount Pictures for child abuse over their brief nude scene, their lawyer said Tuesday.
Olivia Hussey was 15 and Leonard Whiting 16 when they starred in the Oscar-winning version of William Shakespeare's tragedy.
The actors, now both in their 70s, claim in a suit filed in Santa Monica last week that a bedroom scene in which buttocks and bare breasts are visible amounts to sexual exploitation by movie studio Paramount, and that the company was guilty of distributing nude pictures of adolescents.
The suit says Zeffirelli -- who died in 2019 -- cajoled them into performing the scene, telling them without it the picture would fail, having originally insisted there would be no actual nudity, with both actors covered by flesh-colored underwear.
Defendants were dishonest and secretly filmed the nude or partially nude minor children without their knowledge, in violation of the state and federal laws regulating indecency and exploitation of minors for profit, the suit says.
The complaint, which claims damages of hundreds of millions of dollars, says the two performers have suffered mental anguish and emotional distress in the five-and-a-half decades since the film came out, and that both had only limited professional success in its wake.
Both won Golden Globes for their performances.
Solomon Gresen, representing the actors, told AFP the years that have elapsed since the film was made did not lessen the damage done, especially as it has been re-released since.
(Paramount) have images that they know are images of underage nudity that should be removed from the film. That would be the beginning for sure, he said.
Sexually explicit images of children are bad and they shouldn't be tolerated.
If they were under 16, then they're under 16. It's a sexually explicit image of an underage person, it should be forbidden.
December 31 was the final date for historical child sex abuse lawsuits to be filed in California under a temporary waiver of the statutes of limitation.
A raft of claims were lodged during the waiver, including one last week by a woman who says she was the teenage lover of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler in the 1970s.
There was no immediate response from Paramount to AFP's request for comment.
Variety reported that during its 2018 interview with Hussey, she had defended the nude scene, which she insisted Zeffirelli had done tastefully.
It was needed for the film, she told the outlet at the time.