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James Franco Reveals Seth Rogen SHUT HIM OUT After Misconduct Allegations -- Despite 20-Year Friendship!

James Franco Reveals Falling Out With Seth Rogen After 20 Years Of Friendship

Seth Rogen has truly cut ties with James Franco!

The 127 Hours star may finally be looking to get his Hollywood career back years after those #MeToo allegations, but his friendship with Seth is not getting a reboot! In a new interview with Variety on Friday, James answered the question all fans of the friends in their heyday had:

“No. I haven’t talked to Seth. I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over.”

He made clear this was a one-sided beef, as far as he was concerned:

“And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me.”

Whoa!

James and Seth were once one of the biggest duos in the industry after meeting as young actors on Freaks and Geeks. They collaborated on projects like Pineapple ExpressThis Is The End, The Interview, that amazing Kanye parody video… and so much more. But once James was called out, things were never the same.

Related: Kim Kardashian Reacts To Call For Menendez Brothers’ Resentencing

Back in 2018, James faced several allegations of sexual misconduct from incidents in the 2010s, including from several former acting students. He denied the allegations. The next year, two former acting students of his filed a class-action lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment, exploitation, and coercion. The case was ultimately settled for $2.2 million, but James still denied the allegations.

During the legal drama, Seth was dragged into the ordeal after joking on Saturday Night Live in 2014 about Franco getting caught messaging an underage girl. While he insisted he was against abuse and harassment, initially, the Neighbors star kind of stood by his pal’s side, saying he’d still work with him despite the allegations. But he didn’t. His loyalty to a friend just couldn’t outweigh his principles, as it turned out. He told The Sunday Times in 2021 he actually had cut ties, at least professionally:

“I do look back at a joke I made on Saturday Night Live in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke. It was a terrible joke, honestly. And I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”

As for a friendship, he didn’t have a solid stance on that yet, noting:

“I don’t know if I can define that right now during this interview. I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic.”

In December 2021, James went on The Jess Cagle Show and shared the status of his relationship with his Sausage Party co-star, detailing:

“I love Seth Rogen. I worked with him for 20 years. We didn’t have one fight for 20 years. Not one fight. He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator. And we just gelled and what he said is true, we aren’t working together right now and we don’t have any plans to work together. Of course it was hurtful, in context, but I get it.”

While he denied ever sleeping with the people involved in the lawsuit, he did admit to crossing the line with other students, adding:

“Look, I’ll admit I did sleep with students. I didn’t sleep with anybody in that particular class. But, over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students and that was wrong.”

In his new chat with Variety, James also stressed that he has put a lot of work into bettering himself and insisted the legal matter helped “stop [him from] going the way [he] was going.” He’s now “trying to move on” and do things differently, he says:

“I really didn’t have a personal life. I had friends, but it was always sort of enmeshed with my work. And so, yeah, I put a lot of time into my personal life.”

We bet losing contact with Seth was a tough blow! But, honestly, we gotta respect Seth for sticking to his word! It would have been easy for him to denounce James publicly when he was getting canceled only to act as if nothing happened once the dust settled, but it looks like he’s taking these allegations seriously — as he should!

Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know (below).

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.

[Image via MEGA/Mario Mitsis/WENN]

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Oct 25, 2024 15:22pm PDT