The $500m Romeo and Juliet case opens a new frontier for MeToo reckoning | Peter Bradshaw
Photograph: Collection Christophel/AlamyPhotograph: Collection Christophel/Alamyust 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,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 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. These are, after all, children we are talking about . Who knows what traumatic arguments and negotiations led up to this staging on the day, or whether the parents or chaperones felt bullied by the director on set into allowing more than they signed up to? That’s if they were allowed anywhere near the set. There were no intimacy coaches in those days.
These are remembered wounds, reopened in the present day – and the whole question of informed consent looks as if it is being revived. The play itself riffs on consent, restraint and maturity when Juliet at first rebuffs Romeo’s impetuous advances: “Sweet, good night / This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath / May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.” The immature “bud of love” issue could prove a legal nightmare for the studios.
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