James Franco accusers are 'jumping on the #MeToo bandwagon', say actor's lawyers
Source: The Guardian
James Franco accusers are 'jumping on the #MeToo bandwagon', say actor's lawyers
Franco denies allegations and asks Los Angeles county superior court to dismiss lawsuit against him
Andrew Pulver
@Andrew_Pulver
Tue 3 Mar 2020 13.23 GMT
Last modified on Tue 3 Mar 2020 13.34 GMT
James Franco has responded to allegations of sexual harassment by two former students by claiming they were an attempt to jump on the (#MeToo) bandwagon and played into the medias insatiable appetite to ruin the next celebrity.
In a demurrer filed on 28 February to the Los Angeles county superior court, Francos lawyers asked that the lawsuit filed in October by Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal be dismissed, saying none of the alleged events detailed had happened, and the statute of limitations had passed for the accusations.
Tither-Kaplan and Gaal have alleged that a now-defunct programme run by Francos Studio 4 acting school had enabled Franco and his male collaborators to engage in widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behavior towards female students by sexualizing their power as a teacher and an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects. Among other claims, Tither-Kaplan say Franco allegedly removed plastic guards that had been placed over actors genitals while he simulated oral sex.
In the demurrer, Francos lawyers state: The salacious allegations in the complaint have made great tabloid fodder, but like most tabloid stories, they are false and inflammatory, legally baseless and brought as a class action with the obvious goal of grabbing as much publicity as possible for attention-hungry plaintiffs.
The filing by Franco denies that actors were pressured to participate in nude scenes, saying that all performers had signed nudity waivers and no complaints were made at the time. It also denies that vaginal guards were removed as Tither-Kaplan alleged, saying that all of the performers using them confirmed this was the case.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/03/james-franco-accusers-me-too-bandwagon-lawsuit