James Franco has reemerged for his first red carpet in six months following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. The rare appearance also marked the 40-year-old’s red carpet debut with girlfriend Isabel Pakzad.
Franco and the 25-year-old model, who reportedly began dating in November 2017, stepped out to attend the Broadway opening of the play Straight White Men on Monday, July 23.
The actor first came under fire during the 2018 Golden Globes when multiple women criticized his appearance at the award show, during which he wore a Time’s Up pin.
In a since-deleted tweet, Ally Sheedy — Franco’s costar in the 2014 off-Broadway play The Long Shrift — asked why he was “allowed in” to the ceremony. Days later, the Los Angeles Times reported accusations from five women who claimed the actor had behaved inappropriately with them.
“James knew the story was going to break,” a source told Us Weekly at the time. “He was really concerned about it and was nervous to walk the carpet at the Globes. When the Time’s Up campaign started and on the night of the Globes, he knew the news was hitting the next day.”
The insider added, “He tried calling multiple women [before the news broke] to try apologizing and to try to get them to stop talking.”
Franco’s attorney disputed all of the allegations, and the Deuce star himself addressed the scandal during a January appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “Look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done,” he said at the time. “I have to do that to maintain my well-being. The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate. But I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long. So I don’t want to shut them down in any way.”
