James Franco made rare public appearances over the weekend. In France he attended a film festival and an art gallery.
James Franco (46) and Izabel Pakzad (28) attended the 16th Lumière Film Festival in Lyon last Friday. The actor couple posed for the photographers in a good mood and in casual outfits. Franco wore a gray sweater with black lettering and frayed olive green pants with slits at the knee. Pakzad, who has been in a relationship with her partner since 2017, chose black jeans with cut-outs on the thighs with a simple black blazer. Franco honored the French theater and film actress Isabelle Huppert (71) with his presence.
Withdrawal, red carpet comeback and being an artist
The actor rarely makes public appearances. He retired in 2019 after several women accused him of sexual harassment a year earlier. In addition, the practices of his acting school also made negative headlines. Students at the now-closed Studio 4 film and acting school accused the actor and his partners of pressuring them into increasingly explicit sex scenes. In 2021, Franco agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the lawsuit.
In a detailed conversation with Jess Cagle, 59, from SiriusXM radio, Franco explained that at the time he thought his actions were okay because the sex was “consensual.” “I admit that I slept with female students (…) and that was wrong,” he said. He was “not clear-headed” at the time. In May 2024 he appeared on the red carpet for the first time in five years. He attended the Cannes Film Festival together with Izabel Pakzad.
Last weekend the performance in Lyon didn’t stop there. In Paris, Franco visited the Cinema Gallery on Sunday to hold a book signing of his book of poems and drawings. The gallery is showing the associated exhibition “Our Hour of the Night” (until November 9, 2024). “As an actor, director, screenwriter and producer who experiments in various artistic fields, James Franco occupies a unique place in contemporary art today”, . After his photo exhibition “New Film Stills” (2015), he returns to the Cinema Gallery “to present a selection of the drawings and collages he has made over the last four years.” It’s about the “world of Hollywood”, with James Franco paying homage to his idols and at the same time rebelling against a system “that is as seductive as it is destructive”.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
