James Franco Apologizes For Trying To Bang Teen, But Was It Actually Viral Marketing?!?

By now, you’ve all probably heard the story of James Franco trying to hook up with Scottish 17-year-old Lucy Corde after she tagged him in a picture on Instagram. In Franco’s defense, 17 is the age of consent in New York, and the girl in question is super pretty (ironclad defense). Nonetheless, Professor Dicknose felt the need to apologize for his sleazy behavior and took the opportunity during a recent appearance on Live! With Kelly and Michael this morning.

“I was feeling awkward — I didn’t want to come on the show and just feel awkward,” he said. “I’m embarrassed, and I guess I’m just a model of how social media is tricky. It’s way that people meet each other today, but what I’ve learned — I guess because I’m new to it — is you don’t know who’s on the other end. You get a feel for them, you don’t know who you’re talking to. I used bad judgment and I learned my lesson.

“Unfortunately, in my position — I mean, I have a very good life, but not only do I have to the embarrassing kind of rituals of meeting someone, but if I do that, then it gets published for the world. So now, it’s double embarrassing.”

A model, riiiight. The only thing James Franco was a model of was the kind of crap you can pull when you’re famous. Most of the rest of us, if you’re visiting some town and you’re feeling lonely and horny, you jerk off and go to sleep. Imagine if you could just message some random hot fan and she’d show up probably half the time. Tell me you wouldn’t pull something super sleazy from time to time.

Of course, some people have been quick to call shenanigans on this whole story, noting that Corde has deleted her Instagram account and pointing out that it’s mighty coincidental that Franco has a movie coming out next month, Palo Alto, in which he plays a teacher perving on his student, played by Emma Roberts. Could this have been viral marketing?? Even the LA Times be speculatin’:

Of course, knowing Franco’s penchant for performance art and general weirdness, there’s also the notion that the whole thing could be a publicity stunt for his film “Palo Alto,” which has been screened at the Telluride Film Festival and opens in limited U.S. release May 9. In it, he plays a teacher with his eye on a young female student.

Franco tweeted about the film Wednesday, including an Instagram shot of “Palo Alto” costar Emma Roberts taking a selfie while wearing only an “I [heart] James Franco” T-shirt and underpants.

So was it a stunt? To make a long story short…. MAYBE.

See? This is why I hate viral marketing and everyone who engages in it. Suddenly I can’t even enjoy a story about a famous actor trying to perv on a high school girl without wondering if it’s an ad for something.

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