美国国家公共电台 NPR James Franco Sued By Former Students For Alleged Sexual Exploitation And Fraud

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Award-winning actor James Franco has been named in a lawsuit¹ alleging² he and two other men ran an acting³ school that sexually exploited female students. The complaint was filed yesterday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The plaintiffs are two former students of the now-shuttered school called Studio 4. In a statement, Franco's lawyer calls it a scurrilous⁴ publicity⁵ seeking lawsuit. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE⁶: James Franco was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in "127 Hours." He won the Golden Globe for that film as well as for "The Disaster Artist." When he opened Studio 4 in 2014, Sarah Tither-Kaplan was one of its first students. She says Franco taught a class called Sex Scenes. She says you had to audition⁷ for the class and pay an extra $750 for it. But she was thrilled to be selected.

SARAH TITHER-KAPLAN: I really respected him as an actor, and the fact that I was selected based off of an audition meant to me that I was valued for my talent.

BLAIR: She assumed she would learn how to maneuver⁸ sex scenes professionally as an actor.

TITHER-KAPLAN: But the class did not do that at all. In fact, I didn't know anything about nudity riders, the detail required in them, the right to counsel with the director about nude⁹ scenes, the custom to choreograph¹⁰ nude scenes ahead of time to negotiate them with the cast and the director. I knew none of that throughout that class.

BLAIR: In 2016, Franco made videos of his Sex Scenes class that he posted on his Facebook page. The videos have since been taken down, but there is one on Vimeo. It's described as the first class session in which students talk about the scenarios¹¹ they came up with when they auditioned¹². Franco gives them feedback.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JAMES FRANCO: Let's cross some lines. You know what I mean? And then see how you deal with it - either you like it or you don't.

BLAIR: As the class progressed, Sarah Tither-Kaplan says students were encouraged to take risks with their bodies. She says she wanted to be a team player, so she went along.

TITHER-KAPLAN: I wanted to do my best. And I wanted to make friends there. And I wanted to, you know, have it really mean something for me. So I did what seemed to be the thing that they wanted in this class, and that was get naked and do sex scenes and not complain and, you know, push the envelope. And I felt encouraged when I just went for it.

BLAIR: And she says she was rewarded for it.

TITHER-KAPLAN: After I did the Sex Scenes master class and did the nude scene and the sex scene in my short film, I started working with them very regularly. And not a lot of other students got that chance.

BLAIR: The complaint alleges¹³ that Studio 4 promised students, who were paying tuition, they would get to audition for Franco and his company's film projects. Former student Toni Gaal is the other plaintiff who filed the suit.

TONI GAAL: Most of the work that was offered for us had nudity requirements.

BLAIR: The complaint also contends the school was designed to circumvent¹⁴ California's pay-for-play regulations, which prohibits making actors pay for auditions¹⁵. Toni Gaal says that wasn't the only problem.

GAAL: And we were consistently auditioning¹⁶ for projects that had nudity. And we had to upload our self-tapes at home. So there was - they were consistently getting footage of, you know, this sensitive nature of work.

BLAIR: Some of the allegations against James Franco were reported in January 2018 by the Los Angeles Times. Sarah Tither-Kaplan and four other women, all former students of Franco's, made allegations similar to those pleaded in the complaint. But the Times also noted¹⁷ that more than a dozen of Franco's former students at Studio 4 said they had positive experiences there. The complaint alleges that the acting school purposefully sought out, quote, "young, naive¹⁹ women between the ages of 17 and 24" because they would not understand how the film industry functioned. Plaintiff Sarah Tither-Kaplan says she hopes her lawsuit will shine a light on what she describes as an abuse of power.

TITHER-KAPLAN: They knew who they were asking to do the improvised²⁰ sex and nude scenes. They knew who was in their classes. And I think that's by design because it sort of protects them from any kind of real repercussions²¹ because they can just write us off as, you know, nobodies.

BLAIR: The women are seeking unspecified damages. They also want an apology and the destruction of any videos Franco and his partners still have from their time in the class. In response to the lawsuit, James Franco's lawyer issued a statement that reads - this is not the first time that these claims have been made, and they have already been debunked²². The statement continues - James will not only fully¹⁸ defend himself but will also seek damages from the plaintiffs and their attorneys for filing this scurrilous publicity seeking lawsuit. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

1 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

2 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

3 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

4 scurrilous   

adj.下流的，恶意诽谤的

参考例句：

• Scurrilous and untrue stories were being invented.有人正在捏造虚假诽谤的故事。
• She was often quite scurrilous in her references to me.她一提起我,常常骂骂咧咧的。

5 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 audition   

n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)

参考例句：

• I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
• At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。

8 maneuver   

n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略

参考例句：

• All the fighters landed safely on the airport after the military maneuver.在军事演习后，所有战斗机都安全降落在机场上。
• I did get her attention with this maneuver.我用这个策略确实引起了她的注意。

9 nude   

adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品

参考例句：

• It's a painting of the Duchess of Alba in the nude.这是一幅阿尔巴公爵夫人的裸体肖像画。
• She doesn't like nude swimming.她不喜欢裸泳。

10 choreograph   

v.设计舞蹈动作

参考例句：

• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself.阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。
• She has danced,choreographed,lectured and taught all over the world.她在世界各地跳过舞、编过舞、讲过学、也教过书。

11 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

12 auditioned   

vi.试听（audition的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• None of the actresses we have auditioned is suitable. 我们试听的这些女演员都不合适。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• What is that, from some script you auditioned for in the '40s? 什么玩意儿是你40年代试的那些剧本吗？ 来自电影对白

13 alleges   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The newspaper article alleges that the mayor is corrupt. 报纸上断言该市长腐败。
• Steven was tardy this morning and alleges that his bus was late. 史提芬今天早上迟到的说词是公车误点了。

14 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。

15 auditions   

n.（对拟做演员、歌手、乐师等人的）试听，试音( audition的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Find modeling auditions, casting calls& acting auditions, all in one place. 找一个立体感试听，铸造呼叫和表演试听一体的地方。 来自互联网
• We are now about to start auditions to find a touring guitarist. 我们现在准备找一个新的吉他手。 来自互联网

16 auditioning   

vi.试听（audition的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• She was auditioning for the role of Lady Macbeth. 她试演了麦克佩斯夫人的角色。
• Which part are you auditioning for? 你试音什么角色？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

18 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

19 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

20 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

21 repercussions   

n.后果，反响( repercussion的名词复数 )；余波

参考例句：

• The collapse of the company will have repercussions for the whole industry. 这家公司的垮台将会给整个行业造成间接的负面影响。
• Human acts have repercussions far beyond the frontiers of the human world. 人类行为所产生的影响远远超出人类世界的范围。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 debunked   

v.揭穿真相，暴露( debunk的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His theories have been debunked by recent research. 最近的研究揭穿了他的理论的真相。
• Some advertising slogans should be debunked. 某些夸大的广告用语应予揭露。 来自《简明英汉词典》