After the allegations of sexual exploitation of the teenage leading actors of the Shakespeare film adaptation "Romeo and Juliet" from 1968, there is no trial. A Los Angeles court announced Thursday that it would dismiss the lawsuit filed by actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting.

The two had claimed to have been forced into nude scenes during filming by the now deceased director Franco Zeffirelli. The then 16-year-old Juliet actress Hussey can be seen in the Paramount Pictures film drama with bare breasts, the Romeo actor Whiting, then 17 years old, with bare buttocks.

"Lack of sexual innuendo" in controversial scene

The court justified the dismissal of the claim for damages of at least 100 million dollars with "lack of sexual innuendo" in the controversial bed scene. In addition, not every depiction of naked minors is child pornography.

Triggered by the MeToo movement, the state of California had temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for sexual assaults on minors. Hussey and Whiting, now in their seventies, filed a civil lawsuit against Paramount 55 years after filming shortly before the closing of the so-called Lookback Window at the end of last year.