14 DAY TRIAL // Up until today, James Franco was regarded as a funny actor with a couple of decent roles, but not the kind of guy you'd expect to start a scandal. Unless that scandal was about spoofing the famous couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, because he's done that a couple of time.
Yet, this week, the mild-mannered Franco got himself into a spot of trouble when he was outed as a man who likes to flirt and seduce underage girls.
It all started innocently enough: pretty blond girl from Scotland comes to the Big Apple to see the sights; she sees a famous actor that happens to be Franco, snaps a photo of him with her in it and the posts it on Instagram. Franco sees it and falls for the girl, although he has no idea how old she is; he proceeds to chat up the girl and from there on, things get a bit public.
The photos of the flirt have made their way online and they show a 35-year-old man hitting very hard on a 17-year-old girl that doesn't seem to mind. In today's media, that constitutes enough information for a good scandal.
So as the screenshots of the conversation showed Franco eagerly inviting himself at the girl's hotel and offering to rent a room so they could be alone and do unspeakable but very predictable things together. He only backs out at the very last moment when he finds out that the girl won't be 18 for another two months.
The issue here is not the underaged scandal in itself. The scandal is that many suspect Franco is playing a fast one on the media and the public. The fact that Franco's new movie “Palo Alto,” in which he plays the role of a soccer coach seducing his 14-year-old babysitter, is just too big of a coincidence for skeptics who now shout at the top of their lungs that Franco is using this scandal for free publicity.
It's like saying “Yes, I'm involved in a scandal, but here, I also have a movie out, so go and check that out.” If he has indeed resorted to such methods of viral marketing, then he's doing a good job so far. Just yesterday he came on the Live! With Kelly and Michael show and spoke about the incident.
Sheepishly and full of remorse, he admitted that he felt embarrassed about the whole incident and even considered canceling the appearance. But he didn't. And also, he didn't avoid the scandal, but tackled it head on with a straight face that made many people go “there goes a guy that can own up to his mistakes.”
Seeking to get to the bottom of things, journalists quickly tracked down the alleged victim of the harassment and she turned out to be a typical 17-year-old girl: full of herself because of her good looks, and eager to make a dent in a big city such as New York.
It's no wonder that Lucy Clode (the girl's name) seemed honored to be courted by James Franco and not at all embarrassed. When he asked her if she had a boyfriend, she hurriedly replied “Not if you're James Franco.”
In fact, the only person who was appalled by the entire matter was Lucy's grandmother, Beryl Sussex, 84, who, as any outraged grandparent would, went straight to the Daily Mail and complained that celebrities were trying to pervert her “sheltered” granddaughter and that James should at least get a slap on the wrist.
Beryl goes on to preach about how Franco shouldn't take advantage of the situation and of his fame and how he should keep away from respectable girls, which Lucy is, coming from a “respectful family.” Granny seems to overlook the fact that her precious granddaughter never once during her conversation sounded to be appalled or disgusted by a much older man's advances, on the contrary, she was flattered.
So as the pros and cons of the situation are being debated in the press and the social media, and the blaming finger is pointed back and forth between the participants, a new group of people arose, that of the “leave Franco alone” group.
In their vision, the actor had done nothing wrong, giving concrete examples of many other famous men who not only seduced, but sometimes married girls a lot younger than them, some of them underage too. The first examples that come to mind are comedian Jerry Seinfeld, actor Doug Hutchinson, who made headline news when he married 16-year-old Courtney Stodden when he himself was 51, and even writer J.D. Salinger.
These same people maintained that Lucy was just another girl looking for her 15 minutes of fame, which is why she agreed with the advances of a famous Hollywood actor.
In the end, the matter is still very muddy and it's nigh impossible to find the culprit. That's because people tend to have a different view on these things based on their moral values, their upbringing and the society around them.
So it shouldn't really be about who is to blame or who acted in an inappropriate manner, but it should only matter if Franco used this ploy to trick his way into the news. There too the issue is clouded and it might prove to be one of those unsolved mysteries like who shot JR.
We may never know.