Playing defense! Sharon Osbourne backed James Franco amid allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.
“F–k off. He’s the best,” The Talk cohost, 65, told TMZ while leaving Craig’s restaurant in West Hollywood on Wednesday, January 17. “Are you kidding? So what? What has he done? He’s done nothing. So what if he’s got his d–k out in a car? Big deal.”
The British-born media personality also weighed in on whether or not Franco, 39, who recently won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award for his performance in The Disaster Artist, should attend the Academy Awards in March.
“He should go with his d–k out,” Osbourne joked.
As previously reported, several women accused Franco of harassment via Twitter following his Golden Globes win. Five more women accused the Why Him? actor of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior in an exposé published by the Los Angeles Times on January 11.
Speaking to the newspaper, aspiring filmmaker Violet Paley, who dated Franco in 2006, claimed that he once pressured her into performing oral sex on him while sitting in her car. More women alleged that they had inappropriate encounters with the Freaks and Geaks alum at his film school, Studio 4, in Hollywood.
Franco commented on the first wave of allegations made against him during his visit to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on January 8. The Interview actor told Colbert that accusations made against him via Twitter were “not accurate” but he “completely support[s] people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long.”
The Spring Breakers star also addressed the initial claims while appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Wednesday, only hours before the Times’ article was published. “I have my own side of the story, but I believe in these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will hold back things that I could say just because I believe in that much,” he said. “If I have to take a knock because I’m not going to try and actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in that much.”
