James Franco settles lawsuit with former students who alleged sexual misconduct
James Franco reached a tentative deal with two former students who accused the actor of sexual misconduct while attending his now-defunct acting school.
EW has reviewed a Joint Status Report filed in court by both parties on Feb. 11 confirming they have reached a settlement and that plaintiffs Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal dropped their original complaints.
"The Plaintiffs can confirm that the Parties filed a Joint Status Report notifying the Court of a tentative settlement," a statement released to EW on behalf of Valli Kane & Vagnini, LLP reads. "The settlement will be further memorialized in a Joint Stipulation of Settlement to be filed with the Court at a later date."
Counsel for the defense has not responded to EW's request for comment.
Tither-Kaplan and Gaal said they felt compelled to speak out about Franco after The Disaster Artist star was called out for wearing a #TimesUp button at the 2018 Golden Globes where he won the Best Actor award. Tither-Kaplan and other women made allegations on Twitter that Franco had abused his position of power and engaged in sexual exploitation.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2018 that Tither-Kaplan "in a nude orgy scene she filmed with Franco and several women three years ago, he removed protective plastic guards covering other actresses' vaginas while simulating oral sex on them."
Franco addressed the allegations at the time while visiting The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he again stated his support of the #TimesUp movement.
"Look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done," he told Colbert during the interview. "I have to do that to maintain my well-being. I do it whenever there's something wrong that needs to be changed. I make it a point to do it. The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate. But I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn't have a voice for so long. So I don't want to shut them down in any way. I think it's a good thing and I support it."
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