A woman named Violet Paley accused actor James Franco of sexual misconduct on social media, shortly after he won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy at the 2018 Golden Globes.
What do we know about the allegations?
Early Monday morning, Paley wrote on Twitter that Franco allegedly “pushed my head down in a car towards [his] exposed penis” and “told my friend to come to [his] hotel when she was 17? After [he] had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old? [sic]”
The following Tuesday, she later claimed that Franco had contacted her, among other unidentified girls, and offered her an apology over the phone, adding that she refused the request for a phone call and suggested Franco donating his earnings from The Disaster Artist, to Rainn, an ant–sexual assault organization.
According to TimesTalk, in response to the accusations, The New York Times had canceled a scheduled discussion with Franco and his brother, Dave, over his film, The Disaster Artist.
What has Franco said about the allegations?
For his part, Franco denied the accusations during an appearance on The Stephen Colbert Show. That said, he claimed to be happy that people were using social media to speak out against sexual abuse. As he could be heard saying:
“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.”
Before the allegations came to light, Franco was notably wearing a TIME’S UP pin, which advocates against harassment in the workplace, during the Sunday ceremony. As he explained:
“I support change; I support 50-50 in 2020, which just means, you know, people that are underrepresented—women, and people of color, people in the LGBT community—get leadership positions [and] that they fill all positions that they’ve been deprived of… I completely believe in that. That’s why I wore it.”
Who is Violet Paley?
Paley is a professional writer, most recently known for writing a December article for Playboy about Fentanyl and the death of the artist, Lil Peep.
As she wrote in the piece, according to Playboy:
“How do we put a stop to the fentanyl-related deaths? According to The International Journal of Drug Policy, ‘U.S. and authorities will be helpless to prevent unheard of rates of overdose deaths unless the crisis is treated as a public health emergency.’ The declaration of a public health emergency would mean we would treat this epidemic as forcefully and tirelessly as any natural disaster or terrorism threat.”
She is also an actress, according to IMDB, which lists her acting credits as the 2014 Pink Zone and the FX series Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll. She is also a professional director, filming the short, Chipped, and the mini-series, Spent Saints & Other Stories.
