James Franco hits the red carpet with girlfriend in his first public appearance after sexual assault allegations
James Franco made a rare public appearance with his 25-year-old girlfriend Isabel Pakzad while attending the opening night of the play 'Straight White Men' — a 2014 play written by Young Jean Lee. The 40-year-old actor has been keeping a low profile after five women came out in January alleging that they were sexually assaulted by Franco. The actor was seen getting cozy with his girlfriend on Monday when the couple visited to watch the play on Broadway.
Franco, who won a Golden Globe and a Critic's Choice Award for Best Actor for his work in 'Disaster Artist', was not honored at the Academy Awards following the accusations of sexual misconduct which took over social media during the Golden Globes telecast in January. Five women had come forward with claims of sexual assault against Franco in an article published by Los Angeles Times.
Sarah Tither-Kaplan, one of the five women who had lodged the complaint against Franco, said that Franco was her mentor and she had appeared in several of his productions as a former student of Franco's film school. She took to Twitter to vent out her frustration on Franco's hypocritical support of the #TimesUp movement and his winning the Golden Globe. "I feel there was an abuse of power, and there was a culture of exploiting non-celebrity women and a culture of women being replaceable." In some cases, the women were allegedly given the impression that Franco could offer them a career advancement if they would give way to his wishes in spite of their disapproval.
Kaplan further added that Franco had removed the protective guard from his fellow actresses while shooting for an orgy scene almost three years ago. However, Franco denied all allegations during an interview with Stephen Colbert on 'The Late Show'.
“The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long. So, I don’t want to shut them down in any way. It’s a good thing and I support it,” Franco said. He was also criticized by actress Violet Paley who claimed that Franco had pushed her head down on his exposed penis inside a car.