James Franco faces allegations of sexual misconduct by five women; skips Critics' Choice Awards

The latest Hollywood A-list star at the cusp of facing a massive public and industry backlash over allegations of sexual misconduct is James Franco. This comes at a time when the actor-director, known to be an independent maverick of sorts, has raked up multiple nominations across award shows for his acclaimed film The Disaster Artist. [caption id=“attachment_4300013” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  James Franco. Image from Twitter/@NYDailyNews[/caption] Franco won the statuette for Best Actor in a Comedy at the Critics’ Choice Award however he was conspicuously absent from the awards show as reported by EW, unlike his Golden Globes win from just a few days ago where he received the Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy whilst sporting an anti-sexual harassment ‘Time’s Up’ lapel pin. Franco’s troubles escalated when his choice to wear the ‘Time’s Up’ pin as a mark of solidarity with sexual harassment victims and the #MeToo campaign, triggered several women to publicly call him out on his alleged sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour.  Franco denied all the allegations that were leveled against him, however what followed was a massive exposé by LA Times which detailed allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him by five different women around the time when Franco was the acting professor at Studio 4, a stint launched by him in association with Playhouse West in 2014. Actress Violet Paley and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan recently accused Franco on Twitter, “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!,” said Sarah on her twitter account.

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Despite attempts at brushing over the controversy on various talk shows ( Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) the allegations only gained more momentum and the actor chose to skip his latest win at the Critics’ Choice Awards, pointing to perhaps an Oscar’s rebuff and other serious repercussions against the actor, in line with recently disgraced Hollywood A-listers Harry Weinstein and Kevin Spacey.