James Franco looked visibly uncomfortable.
The Breakfast Club star Ally Sheedy, who Franco directed in the 2014 off-Broadway play The Long Shrift, cryptically tweeted, “Why is James Franco allowed in?” followed by “Ok wait. Bye. Christian Slater at a table at @goldenglobes #MeToo.” She then fired off a third tweet, “James Franco just won. Please never ask me why I left the film/tv business,” before scrubbing all of them from her account. A little context: around the time Franco co-starred with Sheedy in The Long Shrift, he was caught attempting to pick up a 17-year-old fan on Instagram (though the legal age of consent in New York is 17). Actress Violet Paley alleged via Twitter that Franco forced her to perform oral sex on him, and “told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17.” She later alleged that Franco had offered a phone apology in recent weeks to her and “a few other girls.” Actress Sarah Tither-Kaplan, who studied acting under Franco, claimed to have endured “exploitative” treatment regarding a nude scene in one of Franco’s films.
Franco, who was wearing a Time’s Up pin at the ceremony, was due to participate in a discussion with The New York Times that the paper abruptly canceled on Tuesday, issuing the following statement: “The event was intended to be a discussion of the making of the film, The Disaster Artist. Given the controversy surrounding recent allegations, we’re no longer comfortable proceeding in that vein.”
Tuesday evening, during an appearance on The Late Show, host Stephen Colbert very delicately probed Franco about the recent allegations, and received the actor’s first public statements on the matter.