James Franco stepped out for a rare public appearance to celebrate his brother Dave Franco’s 40th birthday.
James, 47, was photographed with his brother at the 71st Taormina Film Festival in Taormina, Italy, on Wednesday, June 11. Dave stood in front of a birthday cake as his wife, Alison Brie, mom Betsy Franco, James, producer Tiziana Rocca and James’ girlfriend, Izabel Pakzad, stood beside him.
The appearance came nearly one year after James gave one of his first interviews in years, during which he publicly discussed the end of his friendship with former collaborator Seth Rogen.
“I haven’t talked to Seth. I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over. And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me,” he told Variety in October 2024.
Seth, 43, reacted to the comments in a February 11 interview with Esquire, saying, “Honestly, I absorb so little media that it really wasn’t on my radar.”
The outlet reported, “That is all he wants to say about that.”
James and Seth worked together on a number of films through the years, but in 2018, James was accused of sexual misconduct by five women. Four of the women were students of the actor at Studio 4.
One of the women named Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed James “abused his power by exploiting the non-celebrity women that he worked with under the guise of giving them opportunities,” in an interview with Good Morning America in January 2018.
James denied the allegations. In 2019, two of the students sued the actor in Los Angeles County Superior Court for sexual misconduct, claiming James and his business partners led “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.”
James Franco, Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Betsy Franco, Tiziana Rocca, Izabel Pakzad Daniele Venturelli
Three years later, James agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the class-action lawsuit.
“While Defendants continue to deny the allegations in the complaint, they acknowledge that Plaintiffs have raised important issues; and all parties strongly believe that now is a critical time to focus on [addressing] the mistreatment of women in Hollywood,” a joint statement released after the settlement said.
James spoke out on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Podcast” in December 2021, months after settling the lawsuit. Though he initially denied the allegations against him, he did admit to sleeping with his students.
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“Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong,” he said. “But like I said, it’s not why I started the school and I wasn’t the person that selected the people to be in the class. So it wasn’t a ‘master plan’ on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn’t have been.”
“At the time I was not clearheaded, as I’ve said. So I guess it just comes down to my criteria was like, ‘If this is consensual, like, I think it’s cool. We’re all adults so…’” James added.
Elsewhere in the interview, he went on to say that he has “been doing a lot of work” and “was in recovery before for substance abuse” due to issues “related to addiction.”
