old movie images
olivia hussey Y leonard whiting they were just teenagers when they electrified audiences in the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet. The film was a success and was nominated for four Academy Awards. It was mainstream pop culture, accepted and enjoyed by the nation.
Well, the Boomers should be ashamed of themselves, because they were enjoying and being electrified by a sex scene that included images of sixteen-year-old Whitting’s butt and fifteen-year-old Hussey’s bare breasts. That’s child pornography (seriously, it is, don’t google the love scene).
Can you imagine this today? A popular mainstream movie that unapologetically contains a sex scene with a naked fifteen-year-old girl and a sixteen-year-old boy? Unreal.
Well, Hussey and Whitting are now in their 70s, feel they were exploited, and filed a lawsuit in California last week accusing Paramount Pictures of sexually exploiting them and distributing images of nude teenage boys. All the facts, but then again, it was fifty-five years ago.
The lawsuit alleges that the director assured both actors that there would be no nudity in the film and that they would wear flesh-colored underwear in the bedroom scene, but then pressured them to go nude “or the film would.” fail.”
Director, Franco Zeffirelli, he can’t tell his side of the story because he’s dead. The loss of evidence over time is the reason there are time limits, called statutes of limitations, on lawsuits. California temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for prior child sexual abuse claims to allow victims of systematic and organizational child abuse to file a lawsuit. Hussey and Whiting’s lawsuit is also allowed under that law, so Paramount can’t say it’s too late to sue.
They will conform because one of the other reasons statutes of limitations exist is because, when current juries look at past conduct, it is impossible for a current jury to apply the cultural norms and expectations that existed at the time.
It seems that 1968 America was incredibly comfortable with an underage sex scene, but a modern-day jury will rightly be outraged.
The director’s son decided to go on the offensive in response to the lawsuit, saying: “It is shameful to hear that today, 55 years after filming, two elderly actors who owe their notoriety essentially to this film wake up to declare that they have suffered years anxiety and emotional discomfort.
The school resolves a lawsuit for the practice of high temperatures
The parents of a Georgia high school basketball player who collapsed while practicing outdoors in August and later died agreed to a $10 million settlement with the school district late last year.
Imani Bell collapsed on August 13, 2019, after running up the steps of the soccer stadium during required summer training for the women’s basketball team. The temperature was in the high 90s at the time and the area was under a heat advisory. Imani died later that day from heat-related cardiac arrest and kidney failure.
An autopsy conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found that he had no pre-existing conditions and that his death was due solely to heat stroke caused by strenuous physical exertion in temperatures in the high 90s.
A statement released by his parents’ lawyers said the settlement sends a message to schools about high-temperature practices. And I’m sure it does.
I grew up playing sports in Georgia and Mississippi and the heat was never an issue. I mean, it was always super hot, but no adult mentioned that it was an issue that needed to be addressed or discussed. It was hot, face it.
I can’t imagine schools monitoring the temperature and carving practice times and locations around the heat. I’m not saying it’s good or bad to reduce high temperature practice, I just can’t imagine.
And how about a place like Hot Works. People actually pay to exercise in a manufactured heat environment.
As part of the settlement, the Clayton County School System has agreed to change the name of the gym at Elite Scholars Academy to Imani Bell.
I expect the gym to be huge, because a Georgia high school that doesn’t practice outside in the heat will be jam-packed with indoor practices all year long.
Federal death penalty trial begins
The trial began this week Sayfullo Saipov who is facing federal terrorism charges for running a truck over pedestrians in a Manhattan bike lane on Halloween 2017, killing eight people. He pulled over in the bike lane and just knocked them over, and he admits to it.
The trial is about the death penalty. The state attorney said in the opening statement that the evidence will show that Saipov was proud of the killings and that Saipov was part of a terrorist organization.
Saipov’s lawyer said that the state will have no evidence of any connection between Saipov and any terrorist organization and will paint Saipov as disturbed, mentally disturbed.
On January 16, 2021, Dustin Higgs was executed, becoming the 13th and last person to be executed by the federal government during the presidency of donald trump, when federal executions returned after a 17-year hiatus. Trump’s presidency ended just four days later.
Mitchell Driskell practices law with the firm of Tannehill Carmean and has been an Oxford solicitor for twenty-two years. He can call you at 662.236.9996 and email you at [email protected] He practices criminal law, civil law and family law.
About the Author
Mitchell Driskell Mitchell Driskell practices law with the firm of Tannehill Carmean and has been an Oxford solicitor for twenty-two years. He can call you at 662.236.9996 and email you at [email protected] He practices criminal law, civil law and family law.