Echoing statements that have been made to parents everywhere, actress Anne Greene filed a complaint two years ago in Los Angeles Superior Court, insisting she had no idea that a late-night Cinemax show would feature female nudity. Now that complaint has been answered by a countersuit from the show’s producers, who argue that Greene is in breach of contract for refusing to supply that nudity. It’s just the sort of sexy legal back-and-forth that one would expect from Cinemax for approximately five minutes, before a bosomy lawyer removes her clearly fake glasses and disrobes.
As The Hollywood Reporter recounts, the dispute arose over an episode of Cinemax’s Femme Fatales, an anthology series about “powerful, sexy, and dangerous women” who have no inhibitions when it comes to using their feminine wiles or proper pluralization. Greene, whose previous credits include Saw 3D, reportedly auditioned for several episodes of the series before finally landing the part of “Kendra” in an episode titled “Jailbreak.” In her lawsuit, Greene claims she never would have taken the role had she known it involved “softcore porn,” apparently believing it would instead focus on the compelling drama that audiences of Cinemax’s After Dark lineup have long come to expect.
However, Femme Fatales’ producers argue that she absolutely should have known, seeing as well ahead of time they sent Greene a script that contained sex scenes, a DVD copy of a “prequel” to the episode she was set to star in, a sex scene-filled “sizzle reel” from the 13 episodes of the series that had run so far, and a casting breakdown that included specific calls for nudity, including the “chest” and “behind” that are so crucial to softcore entertainment. Also, the show is called Femme Fatales and airs on Cinemax.
The suit further argues that Greene voluntarily signed a “Nudity Rider”—not just the best song from Grease 2, but also a contractual clause expressly stating that she agreed to appear naked on screen. And while the production reportedly made concessions to Greene when she complained before shooting an oral sex scene, revising it to accommodate her concerns, the trouble truly began during her second day on set, when she balked at doing a topless simulated sex scene.
That’s when Greene claims she was “bullied, sexually harassed, and placed in a dangerous work environment,” according to her initial complaint. But the producers counter they did nothing of the sort. In fact, they say they tried to accommodate her again, allowing her to perform while wearing pasties over her nipples—which they would edit out later—despite knowing this would infringe on “HBO’s policy prohibiting the use of ‘Pasties’ in sex scenes.”
[It is worth noting here that HBO has officially declined to comment on whether it, in fact, has a “no-pasties policy.” It is also worth noting that everyone should hereby boycott HBO until it breaks its silence on its “no-pasties policy.”]
In the end, the producers argue that Greene’s refusal to do nudity did more than just betray HBO’s pastie policy, potentially forcing them to undergo mandatory Pastie Orientation all over again. They allege it cost them more than $85,000 in damages, a sum that accounts for their having to undertake rewrites, as well as recall Greene’s body double and several other actors for reshoots in a “new, more expensive location”—and a sum that sounds about right for an episode of Femme Fatales.
The argument is currently playing out in the courts among people whom you probably wouldn’t want to see naked, pasties or no.