It’s not that I wouldn’t typically sympathize with an actress who refused to do sex scenes, but when you sign up for a Skinemax television series knowing full well what you’re getting into, I would think there’d be a certain expectation. In this case, the actress — Anne Greene — should’ve been fully aware of what was expected. Still, after seeing the sizzle reel for the soft-core porn Skinemax series, Femme Fatales, and after having read several versions of the script, and after having had the opportunity to see 13 other episodes which had already aired, Greene sued HBO, Cinemax, and the producers of Femme Fatale for “bullying her” into filming a topless sex scene in which she is asked to simulate oral sex. She argued that she was pressured into performing nude scenes, sexually harassed and placed in a dangerous work environment.
But here comes the twist: The producers have countersued, claiming that Greene violated her nudity rider.
According to her complaint, Greene claims that she never would’ve agreed to do the show if she knew it was “soft-core porn,” although how she couldn’t have known given what she was provided is something of a mystery. In addition, she signed an employment agreement and a nudity rider, and expressed no reservations about the nudity called for in the script until the second day of production, at which time she balked at exposing her nipples and simulating oral sex.
The producers apparently tried to accommodate her, agreeing to allow her to wear pasties — against HBO’s apparent “no pasties” policy — and use a body double, at additional expense.
From THR:
“The True Crime representative knew the ‘Pasties’ would show on film and therefore require True Crime to hire a body double and spend substantial time editing (both at significant unbudgeted expense) just to get the frontal partially nude shots called for in the scene, and would not be compliant with HBO’s policy prohibiting the use of ‘Pasties’ in sex scenes,” say the legal papers. “Nevertheless, the True Crime representative agreed to accommodate Greene’s wishes in order to mitigate and minimize True Crime’s losses.”
Despite the alleged accommodations, Greene sued, claiming she was bullied into the sex scenes, and now the producers of Femme Fatales are suing her for $85,0000 for breaching “the covenant of good faith and fair dealing implied therein by waiting until the moment her simulated sex scene was to be shot to first express concerns over performing topless.”
What have we learned here? Three things: 1) That nudity riders exist; 2) that HBO has a “no pasties” policy (apparently, they look bad on film), and 3) there are people in this world that still apparently oblivious to the fact that Cinemax is the home of soft-core porn.
And yes, I know: All you want to know is what Anne Greene looks like. Here you go.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
