JAMES FACES SHOCKING MISCONDUCT ALLEGATIONS
For a few hours on Jan. 7, James Franco was on top of the world. He scooped up a Golden Globe for his role in The Disaster Artist, boosting his chances of an Oscar nod. But that same night, the backlash began — and allegations of sexual misconduct began to fly from women including The Breakfast Club star Ally Sheedy and actress Violet Paley. “Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car [to try to get oral sex],” Violet tweeted, “and that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17?” Ally’s tweets, since deleted, were more cryptic. She used the #Metoo hashtag on one tweet about James, and on another wrote, “James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business.” On Jan. 9, James, 39, told Stephen Colbert he had “no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy” (whom he directed in a 2014 off-broadway production of The Long Shrift) and called other accusations “not accurate.” But two days later, the Los Angeles Times published accounts from Violet and four other women who were acting students of his who said James’ behavior was “sexually exploitative,” pressuring them to do sex scenes or nudity they were uncomfortable with. The actor’s attorney denied the allegations, but behind closed doors, “James is shaking in his boots,” an insider tells Life & Style. “He was already a nervous wreck when the Harvey Weinstein story broke because it was no secret he’s had a past with younger girls. He was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.” In 2014, a series of flirtatious messages between James and a then-17year-old girl went public, but his career was unscathed. This time seems different. “James knew the Golden Globes would put him in the spotlight and that winning an award put a target on his back,” the insider says. “And it did.”