Teacher's pet? Not so much.
NYU professor Jose Angel Santana claims he was wrongfully terminated for giving James Franco a low grade in his class. According to a lawsuit obtained by TMZ, Santana gave the actor a D for missing 12 of the 14 classes in the MFA course, "Directing the Actor."
According to the site, Santana was publicly humiliated by Franco, 33, and the University itself, when people found out he gave the Oscar-nominee a near failing grade.
Santana said he was the only professor to give Franco a bad grade. "In my opinion, they've turned the NYU graduate film degree into swag for James Franco's purposes, a possession, something you can buy," the professor said, as excerpted by TMZ.
"I did the work," Franco told Showbiz411.com last year. "I did well in everything else."
Although not a straight-A student, the 127 Hours star graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts on Tuesday with an MFA in filmmaking this May. He also has a degree in creative writing from Columbia and is currently working towards an English doctorate from Yale University. Franco has studied poetry at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina and most recently was accepted into the University of Houston's doctoral program in literature and creative writing. He'll begin his studies in Houston in fall 2012.
