James Franco Denies Accusations Of Sexual Misconduct, New York Times Event Cancelled Due To Claims

After Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony, where James Franco won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Disaster Artist, two women noticed his ‘Times Up’ pin and called him out on it. According to them, Franco is just as guilty of sexual misconduct as other celebrities who have been accused. They wrote:

Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?

— Violet Paley (@VioletPaley) January 8, 2018

Hey James Franco, nice #timesup pin at the #GoldenGlobes , remember a few weeks ago when you told me the full nudity you had me do in two of your movies for $100/day wasn't exploitative because I signed a contract to do it? Times up on that!

— Sarah Tither-Kaplan🌈 (@sarahtk) January 8, 2018

Not long after, journalist April Wolfe wrote that after penning a story about Franco and his new film, she was contacted by women who had similar stories.

After my profile of Franco was published, some people reached out to tell me about encounters with him. I knew a story was being worked on by some reporters, but these folks got impatient. It’s hard to watch someone who hurt you be lavished w/ praise. https://t.co/GPNVIMlWhO

— April Wolfe (@AWolfeful) January 8, 2018

Actress Ally Sheedy joined in, although her tweets have seen been deleted.

James Franco directed an Off-Broadway play in 2014 called The Long Shrift starring Ally Sheedy. The following was her reaction to his win tonight and the fact that he was even let into the award show at all. Also, Christian Slater is a beater. #GoldenGlobes #TIMESUP pic.twitter.com/RrvYnr3RjD

— Only4RM (@Only4RM) January 8, 2018

The Washington Post reports that Franco stopped by The Late Show last night where Stephen Colbert asked him about the accusations and Franco denied them.

Colbert asked: “I mentioned backstage I wanted to talk to you about this, and if you’re okay talking about it, I wanted to ask you about some criticism you got on Golden Globes night. Because you were wearing a Time’s Up pin in support of the Time’s Up movement, which has been created by many powerful women in Hollywood to say that the time is up for the abuse, misuse of women both sexually and otherwise, not only in Hollywood but around the country. … You got criticized for wearing that. Do you know why? And do you have a response, do you have anything you want to say about that criticism?”

Franco replied: “First, I want to say I wore it because I do support it. I was so excited to win, but being in that room that night was incredible. I mean, it was powerful. There were incredible voices, and I support it. I support change.”

He added that the Time’s Up movement’s “50-50 by 2020” goal means more equality for “people that are underrepresented, women, and people of color, people in the LGBT community” by the year 2020.

He added: “There were some things on Twitter … I haven’t read them. I’ve heard about them,” he said. “Okay, first of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy. I directed her in a play off-Broadway. I had nothing but a great time with her, total respect for her. I have no idea why she was upset. She took the tweet down. I don’t know. I can’t speak for her. I don’t know. The others, look. In my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I’ve done. I have to do that to maintain my well-being. I do it whenever I know that there is something wrong or needs to be changed, I make it a point to do it. The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate. But I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long. So I don’t want to — I don’t want to, you know, shut them down in any way. I mean, like I said — the way I live my life, I can’t live if there’s restitution to be made. I will make it. So if I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it. I have to. I mean, I think that’s how that works. I don’t know what else to do,” he said. “I mean, as far as the bigger issues, you know, how we do it. Look, I really don’t have the answers. And I think the point of this whole thing is that we listen. You know, there were incredible people talking that night. They had a lot to say. And I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off, and I’m completely willing and want to.”

He will next appear on Late Night with Seth Meyers tonight. He was scheduled to appear at a New York TimesTimes noted: “The event was intended to be a discussion of the making of the film, ‘The Disaster Artist.’ Given the controversy surrounding recent allegations, we’re no longer comfortable proceeding in that vein.”