James Franco is currently in a bit of trouble for sending creepy texts to a 17-year-old Scottish fan. And in turn, she’s in trouble… for what? Well, for talking about it. His fans have been clogging up her Instagram feed with insults such as ‘this bitch’; ‘Now I see why James Franco want to do you in the butt’; and, ‘desperate for 15 minutes of fame, bitch’.
Confused? Let us back-pedal a bit here.
Lucy Clode uploaded a video of James Franco she’d captured while on holiday when she went to see him perform in Of Mice And Men in New York. Filming him as he signed adoring fans’ merchandise, he yelled, ‘Tag me in this’, which she did when she uploaded the video to Instagram. After tagging him, they started private messaging, then they moved the conversation to text.
The whole thing got a little creepy when James asked Lucy if he should get them a hotel room – at 35, he is almost twice her age. Anyway, Lucy took this story to the internet, then it went just about everywhere.
Some people have theorised that, far from being creepy, James has set the whole thing up as a ‘clever’ publicity stunt for his new film Palo Alto, in which he plays a soccer coach who falls in love with a 17-year-old player on his team, played by Emma Roberts.
We have no idea what to make of this – or whether it’s a stunt or not. But the weirdest thing is that she’s the one getting hate from people. Though her Twitter account is now private, anyone can go onto her Instagram and send her hate. And because they can, they are. We’re not linking to it, because it’s grim.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.