James Franco resolves sexual misconduct lawsuit filed by alumni

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A provisional settlement was reached in a lawsuit that alleged that James Franco bullied students at a theater and film school that he founded in free and exploitative sexual situations, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said on Saturday.

The two sides filed a joint situation report in the Los Angeles Superior Court telling a judge that an agreement was reached in the class action lawsuit filed by former students of the now defunct Studio 4 school, although some elements of the lawsuit may survive.

The document was filed on February 11, but the agreement was not previously reported.

Actresses and alumni Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, who filed the lawsuit for the first time in 2019, agreed to withdraw their individual claims under the agreement, according to the court’s filing. Their lawsuit claims that Franco forced his students to perform in increasingly explicit sex scenes on camera, in an “orgy setting” that went well beyond what is acceptable on Hollywood film sets.

He claimed that Franco “sought to create a channel for young women who were subjected to their personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education”, and that students were led to believe that roles in Franco’s films would be available to those who participated.

The lawsuit says the incidents occurred in a master class on sex scenes that Franco taught at Studio 4, which opened in 2014 and ended in 2017.

The two sides had been discussing an agreement for several months, and the process was interrupted while they were talking.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs at the firm of Valli Kane & Vagnini, LLP, confirmed the agreement in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday night, adding that it will be “later memorialized in a Joint Settlement to be presented to the Court at a later date ”, But without giving further comments or details.

After-hours emails requesting comments from defendants’ lawyers were not immediately returned.

In a previous lawsuit, Franco’s lawyers, while praising the #MeToo movement that helped inspire the lawsuit, called his allegations “false and inflamed, legally unfounded and filed as a class action with the obvious goal of getting the most out of it. possible advertising to attract attention – Hungry claimants. ”They stressed that Tither-Kaplan had already expressed gratitude for the opportunity to work with Franco.

The suit also names Franco’s producer Rabbit Bandini and his partners, including Vince Jolivette and Jay Davis, as defendants.

Claims of sexual exploitation by other authors in the class action lawsuit will be dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they can be restated, the joint situation report said.

The allegations of fraud made by these plaintiffs will be “subject to limited release”, says the document, without further details or explanation.

The document does not reveal how much money may be involved in the deal.

Before filing the lawsuit, Tither-Kaplan exposed his allegations of sexual misconduct against Franco along with other women in the Los Angeles Times after Franco won a Golden Globe for “The Disaster Artist” in early 2018, when the wave of #MeToo movement was sweeping Hollywood.

In a subsequent interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Franco called the stories of sexual misconduct about him inaccurate, but said, “If I did something wrong, I’ll fix it. I have to.”

Franco, 42, best known for starring in comedies with Seth Rogen, has generally kept a low profile since the accusations arose in a highly productive period that culminated in the acclaimed “Disaster Artist”.