LOS ANGELES, April 7 — Actor James Franco, the star of “Palo Alto”, a new film based on a short story collection written by Franco himself, was recently caught sending questionable text messages to a 17-year-old British student via Instagram.
The 35-year-old actor allegedly flirted with the teenager — who has been identified as one Lucy Clode — through an Instagram chat where he asked her age, if she had a boyfriend, where she was staying in New York, and then tried to convince her to meet him in a hotel room.
Franco has since admitted to being ‘embarrassed’ by the leaked chat. In an appearance on “Live with Kelly and Michael” he told hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan, “I learned my lesson… It’s the way that people meet each other today, but what I’ve learned, I guess because I’m new to it, is you don’t know who’s on the other end.”
The meet-up never happened as Clode was uncertain and told Franco that she will come back when she turns 18.
The whole episode does sound a bit dodgy but some people are suggesting that it is just a publicity stunt for Franco’s upcoming flick, “Palo Alto”, where he plays a high school teacher who has an affair with one of his teenage students.
