Last Sunday night James Franco won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for the Disaster Artist, but simultaneously took an L when his decision to wear a pin supporting the #TIMESUP movement caused several women to come forward on social media and accuse him of sexual misconduct.
The actress Ally Sheedy, with whom Franco worked on an Off Broadway play, wrote in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of “why I left the film/tv business.” Actor Violet Paley accused Franco of sexual misconduct while the two were in a relationship, and former acting student Sarah Tither-Kaplan— whose tweets about Franco’s indiscretions went viral— told the Los Angeles Times that Franco removed protective plastic guards covering actresses’ genitals while he simulated oral sex on them during the filming of an orgy scene.
Attempting to get ahead of it, James Franco appeared on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert last Tuesday and denied all misconduct. Since then, his lawyer also publicly stated the allegations were untrue, saying “the allegations about the protective guards are not accurate,” and that Tither-Kaplan had posted positively on social media about the shoot in the past.
Since addressing the allegations made by Paley, Tither-Kaplan, and Sheedy, two other women— Natalie Chmiel and Hilary Dusome— came forward to tell the Times how Franco stormed off a set when they and other women refused to take their shirts off during a shoot at a school where Franco previously taught.