Remember when James Franco was just a quirky young actor on “Freaks and Geeks” and “General Hospital” and everyone loved him because we didn’t yet realize what a pretentious twit he’d show himself to be? Yeah, it’s been a long time since then, and these days, Franco is convinced that everything is AAART (even his butt), and we’re pretty much all puppets in some performance art production directed by — who else? — Franco himself.

And boy, does Franco have a temper if anyone dares to cross his artsy-fartsiness. Between his Twitter tantrums and the fact that he skipped his own Oscar party like a poor sport, Franco is fairly insufferable as a rule. Also, remember how he wanted a role in Breaking Dawn but only as performance art? Well, the filmmakers turned him down, and he just happened to review the film and rip it into shreds, probably because he was grumpy about not being able to make it worse by running across the screen with a penis attached to his nose or some such nonsense.

Now and according to the NY Post, Franco has turned his wrath upon a poor NYU professor who dared to give him a bad grade for barely attending class even though Franco still expected a great grade. Well, of course he should’ve passed — he’s James Franco, right? C’mon, it’s AAART:

James Franco’s tired James Dean act got an NYU professor booted from the school last year – after the teacher dared to give the overhyped Hollywood hunk a “D” for blowing off class, a lawsuit charges.

José Angel Santana said he slapped the 127 Hours star with the bad grade because he missed 12 of his 14 “Directing the Actor II” classes while pursuing a master’s in fine arts.

Santana said he then suffered all kinds of drama – first from Franco, who publicly ridiculed him, then from his department, which axed him over the “D.”

“The school has bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment, that’s for sure,” Santana, 58, told The Post. “The university has done everything in its power to curry favor with James Franco.”

Santana, who is suing NYU in Manhattan Supreme Court for his job back, asserts that Franco, whose career took off after a 2001 portrayal of James Dean, acted like a rebel without a clue in his other courses, too, blowing off just as many classes. But the star’s other professors at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts still gave him good grades, Santana said.

Big names such as Franco’s typically translate into big bucks for universities.

After his student gig, Franco, 33, wound up teaching an NYU course this past fall on adapting poetry into short films.

Santana suggested that the good grades Franco received were payback to the actor for hiring one of his other professors, Jay Anania.

Franco hired Anania to write and direct the film William Vincent, which starred Franco, the suit states. The film was featured at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

“In my opinion, they’ve turned the NYU graduate film degree into swag for James Franco’s purposes, a possession, something you can buy,” Santana said.

Santana also blasted the graduate film department chairman, John Tintori, for allegedly creating a conflict of interest when he appeared in a cameo in a film financed by Franco and written and directed by Anania, the court records reveal.

Neither Anania, Tintori nor a spokesman for NYU returned calls for comment. A rep for Franco had no immediate comment.

And Santana griped that Franco got it all wrong when, speaking out about his grade, he asserted that the professor had a problem having a celebrity in his class.

“I did the work,” Franco told Showbiz411.com last year. “I did well in everything else.”

Santana’s lawyer, Matthew Blit, a notable employment lawyer, said Franco was trying to cast the prof as a fool for giving a Golden Globe-winning actor a bad grade.

[From NY Post]

Ugh, Franco is such a tool. This is all pretty rich for a guy who once fell asleep during a lecture at Columbia University. Why does he believe that he’s too good to attend class like any other grad student, and how come the professor is paying the price for calling him out on his crap? From what I recall (and it’s been a handful of years for myself), attendance is a pretty big deal in graduate and professional programs. My undergrad professors didn’t care at all whether people showed up, but my law professors actually went down the roster every day, and some of them even deducted half a letter grade for every absence. So by that standard, Franco actually got off lucky with a “D” grade because at least he still earned credit for the course instead of flunking outright.

Then again, holding a poor GPA isn’t AAART.

Photos courtesy of Fame

James Franco just doesn’t know when to stop with this “art” nonsense; quite frankly, his shtick has grown beyond old by now. Regardless, James now believes that even his ass is “art,” and his naked butt can be viewed on the cover of the latest issue of Flaunt magazine. No, we’re not going to actually expose anyone here to that horror (you’re welcome), but if you honestly want to witness James’ hairy booty, you can see it here. Meanwhile, the journalist who interviewed James is either playing along or truly enamored with the Franco butt:

James Franco’s ass stares at me from my desktop. it almost farts in my face. It feels like it wants to. Like it’s wanted to for weeks. But alas, this two-dimensional ass can’t blast any audible sass. It’s simply a photo, intended for our art cover–its gassy desires aren’t relevant. Of relevance is: how did we get here? How did Flaunt Magazine find itself a participant, throughout kept at an usual arm’s length, in the multiplicitous James Franco off-the-backlot artistry–what some amidst the fray might call an egoistic cluster-f*ck.

Egoistic? Absolutely. Just check out these excerpts of the interview within the magazine:

On Vulnerability As An Artist: I want to pull back the curtain, because what goes on behind the scenes is often more interesting and informative. We are so used to presenting films and art that are polished and impenetrable–they are well-crafted to the point that there is no messiness, and in some senses, not quite human. In our digital age, anything can be accomplished with the computer. Anything can look good. I want to show the little humans with their little messy feelings underneath all the polish. I want to show the humans at work, f***ing up, trying, doing the best they can with their less than perfect abilities. I also like to feel the material of the work. I don’t want the material to fade away. I am not trying to transport the viewer to a different place, and I want the viewer to be confronted by the form as well as the content. Because I come from the film world, I think a tighter connection is made between this work and my professional acting work. The commentary about the way we view mainstream film and art is stronger because of my place in the film business.

On The Shock Value Of “Art”: We are post-shock in a sense, but it all depends on context. Anything can be found on the internet, but when you take something that is familiar in one context and manipulate it, and put it in a new context, it can be a shock because it defies its former categorization. That is the kind of shock that I’m interested in–not shocking content, but defamiliarizing juxtapositions and redefinitions. I want to look underneath things, to show things in new lighting, in order make new sense of them.

On Whether His “Art” Is Meant To Confuse: I don’t think what I’m doing is confusing. It’s no more confusing than what Mathew Barney does, or Mike Kelley, or Paul McCarthy, or Sacha Baron Cohen. What is confusing is that I’m an actor in mainstream film and the people that usually comment on mainstream film are idiots, and they don’t try to think outside of their pop-culture commentaries. It’s so easy to criticize contemporary art from the outside: ‘Douglas Gordon slowed down Psycho so it’s 24-hours long? That’s easy! I can do that.’ That’s how the morons in the blogosphere try to critique my work. But the great thing about it is, is that their critiques are part of my work. I like that they are confused. I like that they make fun of what I’m doing. It’s a beautiful reflection of where our culture is at the moment.

On His Favorite Movie: Rebel Without a Cause has been endlessly studied, but our project is not a study as much as it is an exploration and expansion. We didn’t take an earnest look at the original film, and we didn’t do it from a stance in the film world. We looked at it through the art world lens in order to break it up, to look at the forces underneath it, to create with those forces. This is not a scholarly study or a celebration. It is using the original film as material for inspiration and as a connection to the history of Hollywood, mass entertainment, and mainstream Freudian thought.

[From Flaunt]

Yes, not only is everything “art” to Franco, but it’s also necessarily Freudian as well. Seriously, he doesn’t get how nauseating that his level of pretention really is, and I didn’t even get into the true nonsensical rants within the interview. The Franco-dictated photoshoot is even worse and features blow-up dolls, bongs, sex toys, and groups of scantily-clad hipsters gathered to imply both a schooling environment and a probable orgy. Juxtaposition, man. It’s so complicated that we couldn’t begin to understand it, right? Although I’ve featured a few images below, you’ll have to visit Flaunt for the rest.

Photos courtesy of Flaunt

James Franco was a guest on The View Friday to promote Rise of The Planet of the Apes, which has done incredibly well at the box office and with critics despite Franco’s dire predictions and sub-par performance. I found Franco to be pretty charming in the interview, as I often have been charmed by the guy. (Excepting Oscars season. Yes, I know I should know better.) He’s full of himself and he’s an ass, but there’s something sweet about the way he smiles and shrugs. If only he could have that same kind of enthusiasm for the roles he’s not into playing instead of acting like he’s above them.

Franco was on the show with Frieda Pinto and with famed motion capture actor Andy Serkis when Joy Behar asked him about Twitter. He admitted that he was getting him into trouble with it and claimed he was amping up the tweets trying to get people to respond:

I was addicted to [Twitter]. I never tweeted words I always did like images and video.

Sherri – like Anthony Weiner? Images.

[laughs] I did that [Tweeted the Oscars]. For me it was a way of showing another story of the Oscars.

Some people didn’t like that. For me it was interesting it had never been done before. I wanted to give a perspective of the other side.

But, I always think ‘I want ‘em to respond more’ and you think like, ‘how could I amp this up with the tweets?’ So I was getting into trouble, I was getting into dangerous areas.

Some of the trouble Franco got into on Twitter involved mocking Oscar writer Bruce Vilanch for criticizing his Oscar hosting performance. (Franco later apologized.) He also wrote “F#&k the Yale Daily News” in response to an editorial saying his Twitter messages sucked.

Then Franco quit Twitter and claimed social media was over anyway, since he was such a trend-setter. (I’m making up that last part, but I assume it was implied.) Now he’s admitting he was addicted to the affirmation that came from Twitter and he blames his nasty scrawled messages on trying to get a response out of people. He did get plenty of responses, he just couldn’t take it when they weren’t glowingly positive.

On the View, Franco also talked about his studies and interests. When Elisabeth started asking him a question, he gave her the serious side eye (that’s at 13:20 into this video and I put the screenshot below) then when he realized she was being nice he warmed up and smiled. When she asked him if there was anything left that he really wanted to study, he joked “I kind of know everything,” then quickly added “No I don’t, I’m middle of the class in all my classes.” Then he explained “I have made time for all my interests… Literature, art and film are basically the things that I love and I studied them.” Oh Franco, you’re so well rounded and self-congratulatory. Just please crawl out of your own ass a little bit and join us in the real world. I had such high hopes for you.

Franco is shown outside Letterman on 8/1/11. Credit: WENN.com

This box-office weekend was a bit of a surprise in a more ways than one. First up, Rise of the Planet of the Apes grossed an estimated $54.0 million domestically thanks in part to some fantastic CGI (very impressive on a $92 million budget) and a 81% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and despite an utter lack of James Franco performance art. In fact, this was a very non-Franco movie in that it was a blockbuster (which we haven’t seen from him since the Spider-Man movies), and there’s not a damn thing wrong with that fact. Seriously, if Franco would just admit, “Yeah, I occasionally make popcorn movies so that I can finance all of my Ivy League schooling and ridiculous performance art,” we’d all probably like him a lot better, right? But no. In fact, Franco gave an interview to Playboy in which he tried to prepare the public that this movie could (in his mind, unlike his other movies) very well suck terribly despite his elevating presence.

What occurred was the precisely opposite, for Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a an immensely enjoyable movie (I liked it too) despite the presence of Franco, who was playing the straight man with less life than a paper doll. Pajiba gave the film a positive review while also penning the following assessment: “Franco is in stoic Oscar-hosting mode, and though he’s onscreen for most of the film, you never develop much feeling for his character.” Ouch. And yes, Kaiser recently called out Franco’s douchey ways that don’t quite match up to an actor who supposedly “lives, breathes, kills, poops and dies for art.” If Franco is such an incredible artist, you know, he could’ve given much better than his flat, lifeless performance in this movie. In fact, I generally do like Franco as an actor, but I don’t like that his attitude in non-artsy endeavors is such that this film would’ve been better off if it had hired an actor who actually wanted to be there.

Meanwhile, The Smurfs continued its inexplicable reign by adding another $21.0 million for a domestic total of $76.2 million; and Cowboys & Aliens shamefacedly follows the little blue people with another $15.7 million for a total domestic take of $67.4 million. Ordinarily, that would be great news for a couple of summer pics in their second weekend, but Cowboys is hurting a lot due to its $200 budget and failure to meet very high expectations for a movie starring the current James Bond and directed by the helmer of Iron Man.

In huge upset news, the body switching comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, The Change-Up, opened to a measly $13.5 million. This result is definitely cause for concern where gerbil-faced boy is concerned, and we are not experiencing the summer of Reynolds that was projected, for his presence as a leading man in Green Lantern only resulted in a $53.2 million opening weekend, which was at least $10 million below both the Thor and Captain America openers. While Green Lantern went on to a $160 million worldwide total, that doesn’t scratch the $200 million budget (plus promotional expenses). It goes without saying that the box office totals for Lantern cannot even be properly credited to any star power on Reynolds’ behalf, for the vast majority of people that bought tickets were fans of the comic. Certainly, Reynolds’ name on the marquee brought nothing additional to the table.

Meanwhile, Captain America: The First Avenger picked up another $13.0 million for a $143.2 million domestic total and a $246.2 million worldwide take. In other words, there will be a sequel and much more therapy for Chris Evans and his waxed-up nips. No complaints in that department, right?

Photos courtesy of AllMoviePhoto

During the douche explosion that was James Franco’s Playboy interview, he mentioned in passing that he and his girlfriend of five years, Ahna O’Reilly, had broken up. He claimed it was because he was concentrating on his studies at Yale and she just couldn’t handle his brilliance anymore (I’m paraphrasing). But Star Magazine claims the breakup went down because of another woman: model Agyness Deyn. James and Agyness were spotted together, and photographed looking friendly in June, at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Busted! In the August issue of Playboy magazine, Oscars cohost and 127 Hours star James Franco suggests that he and actress Ahna O’Reilly recently ended their five-year relationship because of his hectic schedule.

“I signed up for more school at Yale,” he says. “I think that was it for her.”

Another likely factor? Star’s report that James and model Agyness Deyn, 28, were “thisclose” while at Six Flags Magic Mountain in LA on June 22.

“They were whispering in each other’s ear,” said an observor. “It definitely looked pretty intimate.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

There’s actually a lot more to the story – apparently, Agyness and James met each other in January and “hit it off” and throughout this year, they’ve been associated with each other frequently. Then, Franco posted videos of himself and Agyness hanging out, acting couple-y back in March of this year. Also, Franco photographed Agyness for the July issue of Elle Magazine (you can see some photos from the shoot below, go here for the full pictorial). I’m sure the explanation for all of this is “ART” because Franco, like Lady Gaga, lives, breathes, kills, poops and dies for ART. But it’s also perfectly possible that James Franco was screwing around on his girlfriend with a hipster model and really, isn’t that just a typical douchey Hollywood move? That’s so not ART. That’s gauche and common and not worthy of such a brilliant artist like FRANCO.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Elle/ONTD.

Last week, some excerpts of James Franco’s Playboy interview surfaced, and CB already covered the portions that included Franco’s continued refusal to take any responsibility for his awful turn as an Oscar host as well as his legitimate disgust over the “gay rapist” blind item that was pinned upon him. Now, Playboy has published the full piece online. As expected, it’s a doozy of an discussion wherein, among many other points, Franco declares that he really wanted a part in Breaking Dawn, but director Bill Condon didn’t bite. Naturally, Franco intended to use the role as performance art, which is also a term that he uses to describe Twitter; and (in a rare move) he makes a slight admission of handling Twitter the wrong way (remember those public temper tantrums?). However, those self-referential brownie points quickly disappear when Franco preemptively disassociates himself from his role in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (here’s the trailer). Essentially, Franco takes great care to explain that everything in life is performance art, except when it’s not. When it comes to making the distinction between the two, well, the line is obviously quite blurry. Let’s do this, shall we?

On Using Twitter (Including The Hand-Down-The-Pants Photo) As Performance Art: I couldn’t do Twitter the conventional way. I resisted the idea of posting comments, opinions; I felt they weren’t worth anything. I also felt that if I had something worth saying, I’d put it in an essay or a story, not on Twitter. So I thought Twitter was where I’d post cool photos and videos–a kind of collage, an outlet where I could just throw my scraps–and I posted some of a big art project I was doing. I knew people in the art community would see them as art, but they were perceived as something else.

I thought, It’s my account; I can post anything I want here. But I had underage followers on Twitter. Don’t follow me or Lady Gaga if you’re underage. Some companies I work with reminded me that my image is now connected with their image and they were not happy.

Somebody writes or says something about you that can be upsetting, and your first reaction is to want to write back–and usually the first reaction is an angry one. I personally do not do my best thinking when I’m angry. Before Twitter, I always had that buffer period when I could actually think and decide, Is this worth it? You respond to someone and it immediately goes out to hundreds of thousands of people and becomes a big thing that people report. For me Twitter is a dangerous thing.

On Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Here’s my guess: Critics will be out to kill this movie and blame me for it just because they are out to kill me. Last year people were pretty nice. This is the year when people are going to have fun going after me. I don’t feel the same way about Rise of the Planet of the Apes as I do about 127 Hours or Milk. It was a ­different kind of acting.

Because I’m in the digital and media department at Rhode Island School of Design, it was fascinating for me to get to work with Weta Digital, the company that also did The Lord of the Rings and Avatar. I also got to work with Andy Serkis, who plays the ape Caesar and did a lot of motion capture. I never thought of this movie as an example of my creativity. I was an actor for hire. But people still have it out for me, so they’re going to go after the movie.

They haven’t shown me the movie yet, so I don’t know what the result is. I did reshoots, and it sounds to me the final movie will be different from the screenplay, which had a lot of character development. The movie seems to be more action now. I went and did my job, and I’m supposed to be a scientist. I feel pretty confident that I did that.

What strikes me, looking back at [the original Planet of the Apes] movies now, is that they had really good actors, including Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall, in these crazy masks, and they were having pretty interesting philosophical conversations about society, the ethics of interacting with other ­societies and mysterious cultures. It’s fun to see those kinds of conversations and issues. In the later movies it becomes about race and social upheaval, so the movies were kind of comments on current issues. The older movies can get away with that with their cult value. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is not a bunch of apes sitting around having philosophical discussions.

On How He Wanted To Do A Twilight Movie: I had my agent tell [director] Bill Condon that I’d be happy to do anything in Breaking Dawn, but that was because it was supposed to be part of a multimedia project at Yale. I was working with a Yale undergraduate who had written an autobiographical play about putting on a theatrical production of Twilight in which I was a character. So I was interested in Twilight because I was going to be part of that play. I thought what a great connection it would be if I were also involved with the real Twilight.

On How Bloggers Accuse Him Of Coasting On His Fame Through Academia: It’s a great thing. When people heard I was in all these academic programs, the reaction for some person I don’t even know was to take a picture of me sleeping at Columbia. It wasn’t even in class; it was a 10 p.m. optional guest lecture. But people love to post that picture on the internet and criticize me for taking a spot away from somebody else who would really care about the lecture. ­People sleep in class at all my schools all the time and nobody posts their pictures.

Because if someone from Gawker or any of those blogs wants to say I’m “the superstudent” or “the stoner student,” it takes the edge off this public persona that others have created for me. I can just slip under the radar and do my work without being bothered. They will perceive you however they want to anyway.

People from these horrible blogs came to my book party for Palo Alto last year. Normally I don’t care, but it’s like your worst enemy showing up at your birthday party, like, “Why are you here? Get the f&**k out of my party.” But it gave me a chance to see that a lot of the people writing for these blogs are just people my age who are in the same writing programs I was–or trying to get into those programs. So it was like, “Oh, so you’re just one of my classmates who doesn’t like me. That’s what this is all about?”

I’ve been perceived as this guy yelling, “Hey, look at me. I want attention.” I’m not going to school to get articles written about me. I’m just going to school. But the fact that I’m going to school or that someone takes a picture of me sleeping is like, “We’re gonna jump on that and criticize him for his antics.” What antics? I write. I make movies. I’m going to school. I hosted the Oscars. I take these projects seriously.

[From Playboy]

There’s much more to the interview, including Franco’s strange rant on how even his (recurring) role on “General Hospital” is performance art. In fact, he’s very bummed out that the show might go off the air because he was planning on tying the role in with some school project. Of course, Franco claims to take school so seriously and separates it from his silly “performance art” label, which is (let’s face it) just a blanket excuse that he uses to dismiss things that go wrong. Like, if he doesn’t take things seriously, why should we blame him if a project flops? At the same time though, he does claim to take these things seriously. This contradiction, and Franco’s oblivious denial of such, leads me to believe that the guy might just have a breakdown someday. I do hope that this isn’t the case because, underneath all of the douchiness, Franco appears to be a benevolent soul.

However, I do find it interesting that Franco is justifying his participation within Rise of the Planet of the Apes upon a really great script that has somehow disappeared through a series of reshoots. Obviously in his mind, when Franco signed on, this was an Oscar-caliber movie, but now? Not so much.

Photos courtesy of WENN

James Franco jumped the shark big time when he flopped at the Oscars earlier this year. The material was crap but James didn’t seem to try at all, nor did he ever take responsibility for failing to entertain us. Instead it was everyone else’s fault: his co-host Anne Hathway was a “Tasmanian devil,” he “played those lines as well as well as [he] could,” and then got indignant that people dared question his performance. Well it’s more of the same from Franco in his latest Playboy interview. The material was bad, he was trying to play the straight man to Hathaway, and he warned producers that it wasn’t going to go over well. I understand that take on it, I mean I basically said the same thing when I first reviewed the Oscars, but the fact that Franco still refuses to take even a small amount of responsibility for his performance really bugs me. He’s all about pointing fingers and playing the victim while Hathaway has been nothing but gracious about it. He could have come up with a way not to sound so above-it-all by now, but he hasn’t since he’s incapable of seeing it any other way.

On his crap showing as Oscar co-host
“It’s hard to talk about because it’s like assigning blame — not a fun thing to do. For three or four weeks we shot the promos and the little film that played in the opening,” he says. “In the last week, when we really started focusing on the script for the live show and did a run-through, I said to the producer, ‘I don’t know why you hired me, because you haven’t given me anything. I just don’t think this stuff’s going to be good.’”

“I just didn’t want to fight anymore, even when they said, ‘You’ll come out as Marilyn Monroe. It’ll be funny.’ Me in drag is not funny,” Franco continues. “Me in drag as Cher trying to sing like her is a thing. That didn’t happen, so then I just didn’t want to argue anymore. I was going with their program; I wanted to do the material they gave me, not be one of the many cooks doing the writing. There were a lot of cooks who shouldn’t have been cooking but were allowed to. There were some cooks my manager tried to bring in, like Judd Apatow, who wrote some very funny stuff that wasn’t used.”

Still, he gave it his best, with his low-energy performance actually functioning as an intended foil to Hathaway’s highly spirited effort. And when it was all over, the initial feedback was positive.

“After the show everybody was so happy, and Bruce Cohen, the show’s producer, hugged me and said, ‘Steve Spielberg just told me it was the best Oscars ever!’” he reveals. “As far as having low energy or seeming as though I wasn’t into it or was too cool for it, I thought, Okay Anne is going the enthusiastic route. I’ve been trained as an actor to respond to circumstances, to the people I’m working with, and not force anything. So I thought I would be the straight man and she could be the other, and that’s how I was trying to do those lines. I felt kind of trapped in that material. I felt, This is not my boat. I’m just a passenger, but I’m going down and there’s no way out.”

On the “Gay Rapist” Blind Item that people try to pin on him
One blog thread that he can’t abide, though, is the one falsely connecting him with the infamous Gay Rapist blind item that appeared in the New York Post in 2008.

While Franco quickly debunked speculation that he was the anonymous perpetrator — the alleged victim himself insisted that he didn’t know him — it didn’t stop blogs from running the story — and worse.

“Then Gawker picked that up and did this ‘Gay Rapist’ story that was so f*cking offensive because I have friends who have been raped,” he remembers. “They did a very classy online reader’s poll asking which actor who had a big movie out that summer had beaten up and raped his boyfriend and then paid him off so it wouldn’t go to court… My lawyer called them and said that it was completely untrue and to take it down. They said, ‘Well, we’re just reporting what the New York Post told us. If James wants to make a comment on our blog, we’re happy to report it.’ It was a choice. Either let this thing build and become bigger and bigger, or just let it go and let them be the petty scumbags that they are.”

[From Playboy via The Huffington Post]

I feel for Franco over the gay rapist rumor. Everyone did assume it was him and he got tagged with that label online for quite a while. (And I don’t blame Gawker for just stating what so many people were already talking about. Here’s more on that, along with a potential other solution to the BI that is possibly fan fiction.) It’s just that when Franco gets so indignant over everything, when he acts like such a douche and goes on attack mode whenever people criticize him, it’s easy to believe the worst of him. That doesn’t make it fair, though.

Doesn’t Franco look like hell here? He can be so sexy when he’s cleaned up and had a good night’s sleep too.

Franco is shown at an Amfar gala on 6/14/11. Credit: WENN.com

James Franco has been persona non grata to me for months now. Remember when I wrote about his Esquire profile and how he sounded like such a douchey wang, and all of these Franco defenders came out and were like, “Hey, he’s just artsy and cool, I love him!” Those Franco defenders had a hard time defending his sleep walking through the Oscars, though. And since then, I’ve felt like Franco and his Artist-With-A-Capital-A act is on the down-swing. Sure, he’s still getting movie roles, and he’s still an in-demand actor in general. But I feel like the tide has turned. Hopefully.

Anyway, in addition to all of the other crap Franco has going on (PhD studies, MFA program, movies, television, bungling the Oscar hosting, and don’t forget his little book, in which he tries to BECOME Kerouac), Franco also wants to pursue a music career. I’m sure this is all some sort of elaborate performance art. But at face value, I’d rather listen to Kim Kardashian. The “music” is described as “an EP of experimental electronic tracks with drag performer Kalup Linzy (who acted alongside Franco on General Hospital). It’s called Turn It Up and it’s set to drop July 12.” Prepare to have your mind blown:

You know what the lyrics remind me of? Magnetic poetry! You know those magnets with “deep” words and when you and your friends are drunk and mixing margaritas, you stand there “writing” drunk magnet poetry on your freezer. That’s what the lyrics are. “It’s bleeding… this pain in me has arrested me.” Or: “Hobgoblin iris crisis/river birth pinnacle!”

Thanks to LaineyGossip for the story!

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

I can’t help but root for Winona Ryder in her hopeful career resurrection. She gave a very (intentionally) disturbing performance in Black Swan and is a truly talented actress even though, inevitably, she’s “not the ingenue anymore.” Still, I think she can keeping doing the Hollywood thing so long as she steers clear of future mindless projects like The Dilemma, which not only possessed no redeemable value (unless you consider a Kevin James/Vince Vaughn buddy movie to be culturally enriching) but also underperformed at the box office by failing to earn back its budget. In short, the acclaim following Winona’s turn in Black Swan has helped her earn back a few of her former stripes (and seriously, she was punished far too long for one shoplifting incident, whereas Lindsay Lohan keeps getting chances). To maintain this good will, Winona will have to be very careful about what projects within which she participates. For the moment, she’s erroneously selected a James Franco movie:

James Franco will star with Winona Ryder in The Stare, a Jay Anania-directed film that is the first project funded by Waterstone Entertainment, a new producing/financing company formed by producer Jeff Kalligheri and Texas real estate developer and producer Steve Bowen.

Watersone gets started with The Stare, a drama in which a playwright (Ryder) finds her mind beginning to warp as she struggles to launch her next production. She’s plagued by dreams and visions of being watched, but can’t decide if she’s at the center of a manipulative plot or simply losing her grip on reality. Franco plays one of the performers in the playwright’s production. The film will shoot May 6 in New York. Franco is producing with Jolivette, with Kalligheri exec producing with Steven Garcia, Rich Hill and Eric Amadio. Franco previously starred in Shadows and Lies for the film’s writer-director Anania, a teacher of Franco’s who heads the directing program at the graduate film school at NYU.

[From Deadline]

This can’t turn out well, for Franco himself has abruptly fallen from “critical darling” status to “moody, pouting diva” after he thumbed his nose at the Academy with a lackluster Oscar hosting gig and subsequent social media tantrums. In light of Franco’s recent revelation of his true colors, I think it’s a serious mistake for Winona to star alongside him at this turning point in her career. She needs to back out of this one and hold out for brighter pastures, which (if anything else) do not include Franco’s self-referential, cutesy ways that everyone has had enough of for now except, just maybe, on “General Hospital.”

Photos of Ryder at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards courtesty of Juan Rico/Fame Pictures; Franco photos courtesy of WENN and Franco’s now-defunct Twitter account.

This week’s In Touch Weekly has a story about James Franco and Mila Kunis possibly hooking up. I know, where would James find the time for romancing Mila when he has so much High Art to produce? Also: I’m pretty sure that James has a long-term girlfriend, although God knows what’s really going on with him. But don’t let that ruin a good tabloid story! So, James and Mila have known each other for a while – they filmed a Funny or Die sketch once, and they appeared together in Date Night as a trashy married couple. Then, a few weeks ago, James and Mila were added to the cast of Oz: The Great and Powerful, and somebody at In Touch Weekly decided that James and Mila were probably hooking up already, or that they should start. A source even told the magazine, “They’ve been hooking up on and off for months” and that Mila wanted to do Oz specifically because she wanted to work/hookup with James. Yeah… Gossip Cop, take it away!

It appears the only way Mila Kunis can avoid bogus tabloid-fueled romance rumors would be to stop appearing in movies that also star men.

Despite zero evidence, outlets linked Kunis to her Friends with Benefits co-star Justin Timberlake over and over and over again.

And now, like clockwork, Kunis’ decision to join Oz: The Great and Powerful is being explained as an excuse for her to chase its star, James Franco.

In Touch takes the lead in this round of baseless speculation, claiming Kunis “scoop[ed] up” the role of Theodora the witch in Oz just so she could get closer to Franco.

The actor is “her latest conquest,” declares the magazine, which cites a so-called “source” as saying, “They start filming soon, and she’s really excited to see where this could lead.”

We already know exactly where it will lead – to rumors that Kunis and Franco have struck up an on-set romance, at least until she begins her next project, when she’ll inevitably be linked to that leading man.

A source close to Kunis tells Gossip Cop the Franco rumor is “not true” and points out that the actress was producers’ first choice for her Oz role.

[From Gossip Cop]

I don’t believe that Mila and James have been hooking up, although they are probably closer to each other’s type than Mila and Justin Timberlake. Of course, I also believe that Mila and JT never hooked up, just because I think she would be above that junk. But I worry about Mila. The tabloids are going to be hooking her up with costars until she gets a new boyfriend. So, in this game, which is worse? Justin “Limp, Douchey Cheater” Timberlake or James “Limp, Pretentious High Art” Franco? If I was Mila and those were my only two choices, I would stay home and masturbate, and wait this bitch out.

Here’s an older Funny or Die video where James and Mila spoofed The Hills. It’s funny because Franco is really into it:

Photos courtesy of WENN.