i would think they should of done this a decade or two ago …and also were the parents involved at any point?
We were shown this version of the movie in 8th grade English class when we were on our Shakespeare unit and the teacher just turned the TV to face the wall during the nude scene, so I don’t actually know how salacious it was.
Isn’t there usually a statute of limitations on these kind of things?
Yes, but California has just had a temporary “window” during which the statute of limitations was lifted in relation to actions for the sexual abuse of a child. The window closed on 31 December but I believe these proceedings were filed shortly before that.
This (Nirvana Beats Former Baby’s Lawsuit – Lowering the Bar) is not quite the same thing, but it (and the earlier article it links to) covers a similar suit decades later by an actor who was photographed nude as an infant and the image used commercially.
He had no success with his claim.
We saw it in my high school freshman English class. The teacher edited out the scene, so when things started getting hot and heavy, you saw some squiggly lines, and a quick cut to them taking leave of each other. Which, of course, inspired all sorts of rumors among us about just how hardcore the scene was.
My teacher didn’t bother to do any censoring. We were magnet students I guess she figured we could handle it. Or she was just lazy.
I’m guessing they may not have had the careers they had hoped for?
The scene in question is nothing, really. It’s the Morning After - Romeo gets out of bed and goes to the window. You see his bare butt. Juliet rolls over in bed and we get a quick shot of her breasts as she grabs the blanket. That’s it. I remember when I saw the movie (and when I played it for my Freshman English classes) that the scene wasn’t at all exploitative and that Romeo looked buff. Juliet looked very spathic.
YMMV.
Everybody I saw it with at a 9th grade assembly would have assumed it was two adults if our English teachers didn’t harp on the fact that they weren’t.
I saw this for a seventh-grade humanities class field trip. Because it was at the theater, we of course saw the infamous nude scene. A bit of butt and boob. Really tame by today’s standards. That is, if you don’t factor in the actors’ ages at the time.
A further thought about the timing of this lawsuit. It seems to me that nude scenes of kids was less of a big deal back when this movie was made. Nobody freaked out or protested at the time, and I can think of way more objectionable content in other contemporary movies like Sweetback’s Badasss Song and Woman under the Influence. (or at least I think it was Woman under the Influence. It was some John Cassavetes picture.)
I had no clue that the actors were 15 and 16 at the time! We watched in English class, no blurring of the nude scenes.
There is no fooling the wisdom of the Dope.
I’m glad you recognize my brilliance. . .heyyyyy, waitaminute. . .
I learned a new word today!
This is one of those cases where I hope it goes to trial, they win, and are awarded one dollar each.
Based those ages, the movie scenes must have been shot two years before it was released (he was born July 1950, she was born April 1951). The movie was released October 8, 1968. Not that it matters much legally, they still weren’t 18 when it was shot, but it seems surprising. One wouldn’t think your basic costume drama would require 2 years of post-processing.
To refer back to an important point made in the OP and ignored since: did the producer have the signed permission of the parents of the actors at the time? If they did (and if they still have it in writing) then don’t the parents bear the brunt of the responsibility?
Looking back with today’s standards, the morality of the “nude scene” is questionable. It doesn’t add anything to the story, obviously, but it probably juiced the box office some.
Is that a geology joke?
Sorry, but if it’s suddenly a huge deal well over 50 years after the movie was made, this looks a whole lot more like playing lawsuit lotto than like anything with merit.
Me too.
The English teacher in me is happy. The Science teacher in me is ecstatic!