James Franco Is Being Sued By Two Women For Sexual Harassment
Two young actresses, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, are suing James Franco, his two business partners, and his production company for allegedly sexually exploiting women who paid to take acting classes at their school, Studio 4.
Sarah shared with the Los Angeles Times that she volunteered to perform in a nude scene in a short film called “Hungry Girl” for a course at the school and later found graphic images from the film uploaded on the Internet.
“If you Google me, you can see me naked,” she told the paper. “Before I’ve ever been on TV or before I’ve ever had any real credits or before any of this — of course I regret that. I don’t want that.”
Sarah and Toni’s complaint, as reported by the New York Times, alleges the men “engaged in widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behavior towards female students by sexualizing their power as a teacher and an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects.”
However, James’s attorney calls the claims “debunked” in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.
The women aren’t the only ones with bad experiences at Studio 4. In fact, they say they plan to include more than 100 former students in their suit and allege that the school was set up to “create a steady stream of young women to objectify and exploit,” reports the Washington Post.
“Most of the work that was offered for us had nudity requirements — for women specifically,” Toni said to NPR this week. However, according to the suit, their “work” rarely turned into production opportunities the school used to lure hopeful students.
We’ll be following this story for you. Stay tuned for more updates.