|
 The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accused
the 41-year-old, Oscar-nominated actor, currently starring in
the HBO television series "The Deuce," of exploiting aspiring
actors at his now-defunct school.
Franco’s attorney, Michael Plonsker, said in a statement that
his client had not been served by the lawsuit, which he called
“ill-informed.”
“James will not only fully defend himself, but will also seek
damages from the plaintiffs and their attorneys for filing this
scurrilous publicity seeking lawsuit,” Plonsker said.
According to the lawsuit, the two women, actresses Sarah Tither-Kaplan
and Toni Gaal, said they enrolled in Franco's film school in
2014. They accused Franco and two other men associated with his
production company and school of sex discrimination, sexual
harassment, fraud and other wrongdoing.
Franco and his colleagues were "dangling the opportunity to
aspiring actors of employment in film and television," the
lawsuit stated.
"Franco's targets were even duped to pay for their exploitation
through a fraudulent 'acting school' (Studio 4) designed to
benefit Franco and his production companies wherein employment
opportunities for women supposedly increased when they agreed to
overt sexual acts, nudity and performing in sex scenes - often
in an orgy type setting," the lawsuit said.
Students were encouraged to pay $750 to join a sex scenes master
class at the school and had to audition nude or partially nude,
the lawsuit said.
[to top of second column] |
After completing the class, Tither-Kaplan was offered a role in a
project in which Franco appeared in an orgy scene with women. He
removed plastic guards covering actresses' vaginas while simulating
oral sex, the suit said.
The lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of other women who
attended the school, and seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The lawsuit also cited a comment made by Franco in early January
2018 in an appearance on Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" days
after he faced accusations of sexual misconduct on Twitter. He was
asked on the show to comment on accusations made against him on
social media.
The lawsuit, cited his comment, "If I have done something wrong, I
will fix it. I have to." The lawsuit said that Franco and others had
"committed egregious wrongs" to student actors and had "done nothing
to fix these wrongs."
Franco's best-known films include "127 hours," "Spider-Man" and "The
Disaster Artist." At the Golden Globes ceremony on Jan. 7, 2018,
Franco wore a Time's Up movement pin supporting victims of sexual
harassment.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Bill Tarrant and Leslie
Adler)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
