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Today’s edition is written by longtime Hollywood reporter Jeff Sneider, currently editor in chief of Below the Line.
Within the #MeToo era, there really is no precedent for a comeback in Hollywood.
One could argue for Aziz Ansari, but it’s unclear whether he was ever really canceled to begin with. Many considered his behavior to be a little borderline, and so, thus, was his self-imposed exile. No one has fully returned to the mainstream after being properly canceled. But James Franco is about to try.
Last month, Franco, 43, decided to come out of the shadows and finally address the allegations of sexual misconduct that he has been hiding from — and possibly learning from — over the past four years.
The Oscar-nominated multi-hyphenate (in alphabetical order: abuser-actor-director-producer-writer) appeared on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” three weeks ago and expressed deep regret for sleeping with students at his defunct acting school, Studio 4. Though Franco maintained that all of his sexual encounters were consensual, he admitted he was “completely blind” to the “power dynamics” in play between instructors and their students, as well as “people’s feelings” in general.
To recap: Franco was accused by five women of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior. He also once propositioned a 17-year-old girl on Instagram. Franco has never been charged with a sex crime, nor is he in danger of being prosecuted or going to jail. (The age of consent is 17 in New York, where the 2014 event happened.)
Of course, “charged with a crime” shouldn’t have to be the bar these days. Franco confessed to using his fame “as a lure,” and while he’s hardly the first celebrity to do that, the fact that he reached a financial settlement with his accusers last February would seem acknowledgment that he crossed a line of some kind. An attorney representing the women who signed the settlement with Franco called his current apology “insensitive,” saying that it missed the point and that he was still “blind to power dynamics.”
One question turns to the motivation for Franco to give that interview. He has been eager to return to work, according to industry sources. Whether the industry is receptive to his planned comeback, if that’s even the proper term, or if the town’s power brokers will continue to treat Franco like fellow outcasts such as Kevin Spacey and Matt Lauer, is another.
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