A lawsuit filed by “Romeo and Juliet” actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting, accusing Paramount of sexually exploiting them as teenagers starring in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film, is drawing ire from Italy’s Franco Zeffirelli Foundation.

The foundation’s president, Pippo Zeffirelli, who is the late director’s adoptive son, over the weekend reacted with disdain to the suit filed in a Santa Monica court last week, which claims that Zeffirelli tricked the actors while shooting a bedroom scene that includes images of Whiting’s buttocks and Hussey’s bare breasts. The “Romeo and Juliet” actors at the time were, respectively, 16 and 15 years old. The film was a hit and nominated for four Academy Awards.

“It is embarrassing 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 an abuse that has caused them...