A settlement agreement was reached in a lawsuit alleging that James Franco intimidated students at an acting and film school he founded in spying sexual situations.
LOS ANGELES – A settlement agreement was reached in a lawsuit alleging that James Franco intimidated students at an acting and film school he set up into useless sexual situations and abuse.
A status report compiled by both sides at the Los Angeles Superior Court said a settlement had been reached in the action-class suit given by alumni at the now-dead school, Studio 4, although elements of the lawsuit may be live. The document was filed on Feb. 11, but the previous settlement was not reported.
Actresses and alumni Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, who first filed the lawsuit in 2019, have agreed to waive their respective claims under the agreement, according to the court filing . Their lawsuit said Franco pushed his students to perform in increasingly visible sex scenes on camera in an “orgy-type setting” that went far beyond those of his contemporaries. appropriate on Hollywood movie sets.
He said Franco was “trying to create a pipeline of young women who were subject to personal and professional sexual abuse in the name of education,” and that students were led to believe that careers in Franco films are available for those who have gone on.
The lawyers said the events took place in a main class on sex scenes that Franco taught at Studio 4, which opened in 2014 and closed in 2017.
The two sides had been in settlement talks for several months, and the progress of the trial was halted while they were talking. Emails were sent to several lawyers on both sides seeking comment on the agreement and no further details on the terms were returned immediately.
In a previous court filing, Franco’s lawyers, while praising the #MeToo movement that helped motivate the lawsuit, cited his claims as “false and contagious, without legal basis and taken as a class action with the explicit aim of capturing as much transparency as possible for attention. Terrible plaintiffs. They noted that Tither-Kaplan had previously expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to work with Franco.
The lawsuit also names production company Franco Rabbit Bandini and its partners including Vince Jolivette and Jay Davis as defendants.
The sexual spying allegations of other planners in the class action will be dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be filed again, the joint status report said.
Fraud allegations involving these complaints will be “restricted to a limited release,” the document states, without further detail or explanation.
The document does not reveal the amount of money that could be involved in the contract, which the parties say they will apply for court commencement permission before March 15.
Prior to the lawsuit, Tither-Kaplan filed her allegations of sexual misconduct against Franco with other women in the Los Angeles Times after Franco won a Golden Globe award for “The Disaster Artist ”In early 2018, when the wave of the #MeToo movement swept across Hollywood.
In a later interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Franco misrepresented the stories of sexual misconduct, but said, “If I did something wrong, I would correct it. I need. ”
Franco, 42, who is best known for starring in comedies with Seth Rogen, has generally kept a low profile since the allegations arose at a time when he was particularly prolific and ended with the “Famous Disaster Artist”.
———
Follow AP Entertainment writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton