THE ANGELS – A preliminary agreement has been reached in a lawsuit in which James Franco was accused of intimidating female students at a film and drama school he founded to get free sexual situations and which abused the students, the prosecutors said. were announced yesterday.
Both parties filed a joint status document with the Los Angeles Superior Court, indicating to a judge that a settlement had been reached in the class action lawsuit filed by former students of the now closed school, Studio 4, although some aspects of the lawsuit could be maintained. .
The document was presented on Feb. 11, although it had not been reported before the pact.
Actresses and former students Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, who started the trial in 2019, have agreed to drop their specific allegations, the document said. Their lawsuit alleged that Franco pressured his female students to perform increasingly explicit sexual scenes on camera in an “orgy-like context” that went well beyond what was acceptable on Hollywood recordings.
It claimed that Franco was “trying to create a resource for young women subjected to their sexual and professional exploitation in the name of education” and that female students were made to believe that roles would be available in Franco’s films for which they accepted his terms. .
The lawsuit indicated that the incidents had occurred in a sex scene masterclass that Franco gave at Studio 4, which opened in 2014 and closed in 2017.
Both parties negotiated an agreement for months and the legal proceedings were suspended while the dialogue continued.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, Valli Kane & Vagnini, LLP, confirmed in a statement to The Associated Press last night that a settlement had been reached.
Emails sent to defense attorneys after hours were initially not answered.
In an earlier court document, Franco’s lawyers praised the #MeToo movement that helped inspire the lawsuit, though they dismissed the allegations as “ false and sensational, with no legal basis, and as a class action lawsuit filed with the clear goal of getting as much publicity. collect as possible for claimants seeking care. They noted that in the past Tither-Kaplan had appreciated the opportunity to work with Franco.
Allegations of sexual exploitation from other plaintiffs in the trial will be dismissed without bias, meaning they can be resubmitted outside of the class action lawsuit, the joint report said.
The document did not disclose how much money it could have included in the deal.
In an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the lawsuit was filed in 2018, Franco said the allegations against him were false, although he added, “If I’ve done something wrong, I’ll fix it. I have to do it ”.
Franco, 42, best known for starring in comedies starring Seth Rogen, has generally held down since the allegations surfaced in a highly prolific period for the actor, culminating in award-winning The Disaster Artist.