A New York Times speaking event featuring James Franco has been cancelled, following several allegations of sexual misconduct put to the actor and director on social media.
The TimesTalks event, scheduled for Wednesday evening in New York City, was to feature James and his brother Dave Franco in conversation about their new movie, The Disaster Artist.
The film earned the elder brother a Golden Globe award for best actor in a comedy. At the ceremony, Franco wore a pin in solidarity with the Time’s Up movement against sexual harassment and abuse.
In response, actor Violet Paley accused Franco of engaging in a nonconsensual sex act, and alleged he’d attempted to convince a 17-year-old to visit his hotel room.
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 (@VioletPaley) January 8, 2018
(Franco has previously admitted to hitting on a 17-year-old girl via Instagram DMs.)
Paley later said she had also witnessed him “doing something non consensual” with someone else.
https://twitter.com/VioletPaley/status/950702249147236354
Sarah Tither-Kaplan, a one of Franco’s former students, also took to Twitter to state she was once paid $100 a day to appear fully nude in one of his projects – a deal that Tither-Kaplan said was exploitative, due to the immense power imbalance between the two parties.
https://twitter.com/sarahtk/status/950165990213496832
https://twitter.com/sarahtk/status/950240220112285696
Franco has not publicly responded to the allegations, and TimesTalks did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment on the cancellation.
This article discusses sexual assault & harassment. If you would like to talk to a counsellor about rape, sexual assault or domestic violence, give the people over at 1800 RESPECT a call on 1800 737 732.
