Noted escaped Hollywood lab experiment James Franco has been posting some “scandalous” photos on his Instagram featuring him “caught” sexing up and getting gone down on by a mysterious blonde woman in an homage to/critique of celebrity gossip sites like Perez Hilton and Just Jared. Then on Wednesday, he switched teams (as he’s wont to do) by posting photos of a clandestine lip-lock with a hunk with nice pecs, pit stains and a questionable face. Never a stranger to gay rumors — which, at this point, we’re beginning to think he started himself — Franco added the caption “In love????????” Aww. Notably, the dalliances with the female were relegated to strictly physical relationships — though obviously we would’ve preferred some same-sex #roadhead. Either go big or go home, Franco.
Photos: jamesfrancotv
jwrappaport
Is anyone else beyond weary of his gay shtick? Being gay isn’t trivial to us, and it’s not a game. Being gay isn’t a role we can just discard when a new film comes along, and it’s certainly not something we do for notoriety or attention. It’s who we are, and it’s something I suspect all of us are made aware of every single day of our lives, be it by the extraordinary homophobia in the world or simply by the mundane, for instance that we’re not out at work lest it give people the willies.
Most of us don’t live in a world like James does, which is to say a world where you can be anyone you want with anyone you want and remain essentially unaccountable socially, professionally, and financially. He can do anything he wants because it’s all an act for him, and unless he’s actually gay, he has no skin in this game. As for his whole “I wish I were gay” nonsense, I say, f*ck you. This is my life, not your childish cry for attention.
Mr. E. Jones
@jwrappaport:
Co-sign everything you wrote.
Steve
@jwrappaport: Oh lord. He’s not making light of homosexuals, he’s satirizing our culture of gossip. It’s fun and it’s funny. I’m not saying what you’re saying isn’t valid about the struggles homosexuals still face, but my god there is also fun in the world that is also allowed to exist. And there are so many people who are represent actual threats to LBGT people worldwide, why are you bringing all of this down on the shoulders of James Franco? I can give you a list of people to get much more upset about if you’d like.
balehead
Franco’s showing that emotional closeness shouldn’t be a stigma between two straight men….unless the gay separtists continue to have a problem with that….
jwrappaport
@Steve: Of course he’s not intentionally making light of us – he’s no Billy Graham or Pat Robertson. Fun and satire are great, but that’s not properly what this is. This is a straight man who thinks it’s cute to play gay for a day for media attention. (The idea that this is somehow satire or some deeper social statement is facetious at best.) It’s a lot like when Marie Antoinette would dress up and play peasant for the day with her rich friends on the eve of the French Revolution: it’s not cute, and it’s not funny. Frankly, it smacks of someone who’s essentially clueless and living in a world other than the one you and I do. Read the whole interview in which he says he wishes he were gay. I don’t think I’m out of bounds to say that his claims in it trivialize our lives by reducing them to images and roles.
I don’t enjoy being exoticized, fetishized, or featured as the subject of a celebrity’s empty, attention-grabbing antics. Okay, fetishized maybe a little, but not the others.
Dxley
He thinks this is a motherfucking game? o_O
Kieran
Anything that makes “gay” appear cool in the eyes of young people is obviously a good thing for the gay community. Imagine if every male star would follow James Franco’s lead and pose for pictures kissing another male. Imagine the impact that would have on homophobia. It would enrage the homophobes. Good for James Franco.
Ferallove
@jwrappaport: Thank you for everything you just said, it was exactly how I was feeling. An making a mockery of our community just to avoid coming out of the closet isn’t entertaining, cute or funny. He can be as afraid as he wants to be because of his career or any other potential effect coming out would have, but making it a zinger or some kind of ploy for attention is ugly and disrespectful. Never been a fan of James and he’s solidifying why I never will be.
KEVINVENTION
@jwrappaport: For once, I actually agree with TWO opposing opinions on a Queerty thread (SEE BELOW). By and large, though, James Franco is harmless. If he wants to kiss another dude for publicity, who gives a F*K? I wouldn’t mind being “staged” in one of these photo shoots with him… 😉 #CallMeJames
KEVINVENTION
@Steve: For once, I actually agree with TWO opposing opinions on a Queerty thread (SEE ABOVE). By and large, though, James Franco is harmless. If he wants to kiss another dude for publicity, who gives a F*K? I wouldn’t mind being “staged” in one of these photo shoots with him… 😉 #CallMeJames
patricklee5150
@Kieran: I agree with you 100%….
J.c.
@Steve: Exactly! Well said! Kudos!
J.c.
@balehead: Kudos!
J.c.
@Kieran: 100% thank you!
jmmartin
“Getting gone down on”?! I know cursive is disappearing, but why does proofreading by literate, grammatically & syntactically wise editors have to go with it? Yeah, I can tell what you are talking about, Franco getting a b.j. from a blond-haired dude. But just because American youth writes English as if it were a foreign language they have not mastered, doesn’t mean you have to do so too.
J.c.
@jwrappaport: Such arrogant comments, and passing judgement on Franco’s actions. You taking it all personally and making it seem like YOUR community is being mocked? Get off your throne please and open you mind to the possibility and probability that Franco is as was said playing the ‘irony” of the two encounters ‘man woman, man, man ” and highlighting the negative reaction and hypocritical condemnation of homophobes to the male to male images. Franco is bona fide genius and I am not surprised he would create and present this, off the cuff and playfully. I say that YOU sir are the one who is trivial as is your concept of this. (lol)
KEVINVENTION
@J.c.: Uh, TRUE… 😉
KEVINVENTION
@jmmartin: Huh? Really? I understand where you’re coming from — I’ve been a newspaper/mag Reporter/Editor/Writer for 25 years now(!) — but you expect an internet writer to be on the same wavelength as what you see/grew up with in print? NOT GONNA HAPPEN. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. When your news is instant (via the internet), something’s gotta give. Hopefully(!), the readers have the basics to “get the gist”. I’m not a Big Fan of internet slang or abbreviations, either. But you know what? I go with the flow to 1) Stay relevant and 2) Get my point across. It’s all part of the technological explosion/overload we’ve ALL experienced in the last 10-15 years. I may not be “relevant” anymore, but I paved the way in the 80s & 90s for this kind of discussion… 😉
jwrappaport
@J.c.: Bona fide genius? Oy gevalt. I think we have radically different definitions of what the word genius means. I’ll say it again: the idea that his antics are anything other than self promotion is unworthy of rebuttal.
KEVINVENTION
@KEVINVENTION: *paved the FUCK out of the way*
scotshot
@jwrappaport:It is funny. Stop whining and playing the victim. All I need to hear from is another 25 year old about how tough your struggle has been and what a hard long road it’s been. I’m 59 and have seen a bit more than you have. I don’t spend my day bitching like you do. Man up.
Give Jesus back his cross. He needs it more than you do.
KEVINVENTION
@scotshot: AMEN. 10, 15, GOD FORBID 20(!) years ago, these bitches wouldn’t KNOW how easy they have it. I’ve fought my ENTIRE existence (and I’m nothing special — well, sorta — just turned Fiddy) to NOT have other folks go through what I — I — went through. This taking stuff for granted — “It’s ALWAYS been this way!” — is BULLSHIT. Bitch, PLEASE. It hasn’t. Us Bitches in the trenches GAVE you the right and MADE IT POSSIBLE for you to superficially Dis those of us who got your shit together BEFORE you came along, WORD…
jwrappaport
@scotshot: A textbook appeal to authority masked in an ad hominem attack: “You’re younger than I am, therefore your opinion is vulnerable to criticism and you’re playing the victim.” You undoubtedly have faced struggles alien to me (and almost certainly far greater in magnitude) and have lived much more life than I have, but neither has any bearing on the strength of our arguments.
I don’t have to be 59 to have a problem with someone exoticizing and objectifying gayness for the purpose of self-promotion. You may think it’s funny, but I don’t. You’re totally welcome to express a different sentiment, but let’s not play the age card or run the 100-yard dash in the olympics of suffering.
hanrahanjude
upto I saw the draft for $4872, I be certain that my mother in law could realey taking home money part time at their computer.. there great aunt started doing this for only fourteen months and as of now paid for the morgage on there condo and bourt a brand new audi. get redirected here BAM%32%31%2E%63om
Go to website and click Home tab for more details.
Niall
I don’t feel like he’s making a mockery out of being gay, but rather I find that his schtick is becoming like those straight college girls who make out with each other in bars for attention.
remyfacade
He is not gay. He is just comfortable with his sexuality