Entertainment

James Franco Keeps Getting Creepier

by Kaitlin Reilly

I am over James Franco. Seriously. The actor went on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show Wednesday and proved that he is a grade-A creep, and the worst part is that he doesn't even recognize it. After spending a good 20 minutes of the Howard Stern interview talking about Lindsay Lohan's apparent "obsession" with him, Franco is asked about that pesky little conversation he had with an underage fan. You know, the one in which 36-year-old Franco tries to solicit a 17-year-old fan to join him in a hotel room? Anyway, Franco thinks that it is just bananas that anyone is even talking about this, because, clearly, he's not the one to blame in this situation:

I'm not going to high schools looking for dates. I'm leaving my work and they're coming there... look, my fan base is like 17-year-old girls. If I do a book signing, it'll be 17-year-old to 30-year-old women. That's my biggest fan base. So I saw her, and she's saying on her page, 'I love James Franco,' blah blah blah... So that, to me, sounds like, okay, she's interested.

Let's just all take a moment to realize what Franco just said here, which is that, because fans come to see him after a show, it is thereby totally okay to pursue them, regardless of whether or not they are of age. And you all should just stop talking about it, because it's not like Franco sits in high school parking lots and goes all Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused on the cutest high school senior he can find. That would be creepy. Trying to get a high schooler to go to a hotel room with you when you are a 36-year-old actor is just how the rich and famous find dates, amirite?

Am I the only one who sees this as taking advantage of a young fan? Because Franco does not seem to get that at all. It makes me wonder just how many young fans Franco has tried to hook up with. (Oh, and let's not pretend that Franco wasn't after sex with this girl — this was very clearly Franco making the moves. If he wanted anything else, he would have invited her out to dinner, or to his Broadway play's after party, or anywhere else where there would be other people who would notice that Franco dating a child.)

Frankly, I'm not sure what Franco was thinking, and I almost don't want to. I'm going to go burn my copy of Tristan and Isolde now. I don't think I can bear to watch Franco making out with anyone anymore.