How Did They Ever?

Christi Harris in “Night of the Demons 2”

It didn’t occur to me when I first set up this page, but someone recently pointed out that Christi Harris was only 15 (or 16 at most) when she shot her nude scenes in Night of the Demons 2 (the film was released well after it was shot, for those of you doing the math) — and only a year older for Night of the Scarecrow.

Of course, the law forbids any sort of filmed, photographed, or otherwise published “obscenity” (which includes nudity) to people under 18. So how to explain Christi’s published moments in the buff? Or Thora Birch’s, for that matter? Or Michelle Johnson’s? Or Brooke Shields’?

For a time I thought parental consent was the key factor, although I suspected that the parents’ professional involvement might also play a role in getting screen nudity approved. (Christi and Brooke were both managed by their mothers, Thora by her father.) But later I learned (while reading an old article about Michelle Johnson) that permission from the parents isn’t enough — you have to get the script approved by a judge. Federal law punishes “any parent, legal guardian, or person having custody or control of a minor who knowingly permits [a] minor to engage in ... sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct.” The escape clause is the one providing that underage nudity, etc., is not a criminal offense as long as there’s some “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value”.

In other words, whether or not a minor’s naughty bits can legally be shown depends on the filmmaker’s ability to argue the work’s artistic merits, which is why some films (like American Beauty, and even Blame It On Rio and Night of the Demons 2) open at theaters or video stores and others (like Tin Drum) open at court.