James Frano Reveals Falling Out with Seth Rogen, Friend of 20 Years
James Franco Mourns Friendship With Seth Rogan: âI Guess Itâs Overâ
This is the end for James Franco and Seth Rogen’s friendship.
Three years after Rogen expressed regret for initially standing by Franco amid sexual misconduct allegations and said he didnât see them working again, the 127 Hours actor shared an update on where they stand.
“No. I havenât talked to Seth,” Franco told Variety in an interview published Oct. 25. “I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess itâs over. And not for lack of trying. Iâve told him how much heâs meant to me.”
Francoâwho first worked with Rogen on the beloved â90s series Freaks and Geeks and later costarred in films such as Pineapple Express, This Is The End, The Interview and The Disaster Artistâfaced a variety of allegations of sexual misconduct in the late 2010s, including from several former acting students in 2018, though he denied any wrongdoing at the time.
The following year, he was sued in a class-action lawsuit by two former acting students, alleging sexual harassment, exploitation and coercion. The case was settled for $2.2 million.
But while Rogan initially showed support for his longtime friend, confirming to Vulture in a 2018 interview that the allegations made against Franco in the press didnât change anything about his willingness to work with him in the future, he later admitted the allegations took a toll on their friendship and working relationship.
“I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James,” he told The Sunday Times in 2021, “and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.â
Franco responded to Rogen’s comments months later.
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“I love Seth Rogen,” he noted on The Jess Cagle Show in December 2021. “I worked with him for 20 years. We didn’t have one fight for 20 years. Not one fight. He was my absolute closest work friend, collaborator. And we just gelled and what he said is true, we aren’t working together right now and we don’t have any plans to work together. Of course it was hurtful, in context, but I get it.”
And he further shared insight into where he had crossed the line with his studentsâbut stressed never with anyone involved in the lawsuit. “Look, I’ll admit I did sleep with students,” he said. “I didn’t sleep with anybody in that particular class. But, over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students and that was wrong.”
The actor’s career stalled for years in wake of the allegations. However, this year, Franco returned to the screen for the first time in five years, appearing on the TV series Karantina and the movie The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure.
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“Iâm so grateful to be working,” Franco told Variety. “I did go through a lawsuit, and during that lawsuit I wasnât working. But then COVID hit, so everybody wasnât working.”
He continued, “Whatever had been going on with me before, I had to change my whole way of life. So I am proud of the kind of work I did during that time. And yeah, I wasnât working in movies, but I certainly was doing a lot of work to change who I was.”
And these days, Franco is focused on the future.
“I mean, it is what it is,” he said. “Iâve honestly moved past it. It was dealt with, and I got to change. So thatâs it, itâs over.”
Though we may be mourning the end of their bromance, there are still plenty more celeb friendships we can raise a glass to. Take a look below.
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Cameron Diaz & Nicole Richie
Nicole, a longtime fan of her sister-in-law’s movies, several years ago took the opportunity to ask her to re-enact a few of her favorite movie scenes, including one from My Best Friend’s Wedding.
“We were in Chicago and I said to her, ‘Cameron, I need you to give it to me. I need you to get behind the luggage cart and run towards me, towards the airport,'” she said on the Everything Iconic with Danny Pellegrino podcast in May 2024. “I really think like at a certain point, we were driving past things and I was like, ‘Say this. Say this. Say this.’ And she really just let me have it. It was very generous of her.”
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Amy Schumer & Jennifer Lawrence
Thank goodness Lawrence is down to hang or we might have been robbed of one of our most beloved set of besties. Their friendship was born from an email the Oscar winner sent after watching Schumer’s 2015 comedy. “I emailed her after I saw Trainwreck and said, ‘I don’t know where to get started. I guess I should just say it: I’m in love with you,'” she recalled to The New York Times. “We started emailing, and then emailing turned to texting.”
But what really solidified their bond was Schumer’s casual invite for her new pal to join her and her high school friends in the Hamptons. Shocked when she said yes, Schumer relaxed when she realized Lawrence is “the coolest chick you’ll ever meet,” she said on The Daily Show. “She’s the best hang, she was like one of the gang.”
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Jennifer Lopez & Leah Remini
Who doesn’t want a friend that basically owns real estate in your corner? They’ve been tight since falling in love at first sight at the 2004 premiere of Man on Fire. “It was one of those instant chemistry things where you just feel like, ‘I love this person. I love being around this person. This person makes me laugh,'” Lopez recalled to Entertainment Tonight of her Brooklyn-bred bestie.
And Remini was among those getting loud in celebration of Lopez’s performance at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. “I wrote her and said, ‘You know, you’re a girl from the Bronx. ‘Like, what you did today was really inspiring, and it was just beautiful to watch,” she told E! News. “Just beautiful.'”
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Jennifer Aniston & Courteney Cox & Lisa Kudrow
The gold standard of celebrity bestiesâthis trio has been in lock step since their days of sharing salads on the Warner Brothers lot. “They grew up together and went through this formidable life experience that was Friends,” a source told E! News.
So, much like you might meet up with coworkers from your first job, they make it a point to get happy hours (and the occasional major reunion) on their calendar. “Geographically it’s not hard to be at Courteney’s Sunday dinners or at a pool party at Jen’s house,” notes the source. “They all feel incredibly close and always will be.”
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Tiny Fey & Amy Poehler
Making other friends jealous since a chance meeting at improv training in 1993, the frequent costars are so close, they liken their bond to that of family. “I think that Tina and I are chosen sisters,” Poehler, whose sole sibling is younger brother Greg, told PopSugar while discussing their 2015 flick Sisters. “I think we are chosen family, so I think it’s been fun to experience that thing I never got to experience in real life.”
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Michelle Williams & Busy Philipps
“It was like, you know, how people say love at first sight? We had that thing,” Philipps told Entertainment Weekly of their initial interaction on the Dawson’s Creek set. “We had that friend connection. It was just an immediate: ‘Of course we’re drinking wine and smoking cigarettes and getting in bar fights.’ We just had an immediate love for each other that’s continued over the years.”
Fortunately for us, we get to voyeuristically follow along as they work red carpets, wear coordinating outfits and occasionally dye Williams’ hair the most perfect shade of millennial pink.Â
E! Illustration; Kevin Mazur/WireImage; Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Adele & Drake
Theirs is a newer alliance, but no less desirable. After years of existing in the same orbit, the “Hotline Bling” rapper and the “Hello” songstress, who have 19 Grammys between them, began throwing out the idea of a collaboration. “I really want us to do an official remix,” she told Canada’s etalk of their well-coordinated hits. “I love Drake. I love Drake so much. I even got the coat that’s in the video, I got it delivered the other day, I ordered it. The red one.”
He responded by saying, “I’d do anything with Adele. I’d literally go to Adele’s house right now and do laundry for her.” Instead, they grabbed a bite to eat and hit up an L.A. bowling alley. Next time, you know, call us on our cell phone.Â
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Kerry Washington & Eva Longoria
Having had “women that were really helpful to me when I was pregnant,” mom of two Washington has always strived to pay it forward with her celeb pals. “I really do try to have those conversations openly and honestly as possible, especially with my soul sister, with Eva,” she told Entertainment Tonight. Her advice was well-received when Longoria welcomed son Santiago in 2018, with the Grand Hotel actress calling the Scandal alum, “basically my doula.”Â
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Ben Affleck & Matt Damon
More than 20 years after nabbing Oscar gold, the Good Will Hunting scribes are back at it again, working on The Last Duel. And though it’s been a minute since they shared a screen, their bromance hasn’t wavered. “I’ve known him for 35 years, and we grew up together,” Damon told Entertainment Tonight in 2016. “We were both in love with the same thingâacting and filmmaking. I think we fed on each other’s obsession during really formative, important years and that bonded us for life.”
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Oprah Winfrey & Gayle King
The connection between two of television’s most powerful women dates back to 1976 when they were working at a Baltimore stationâthough anchors (Winfrey helmed the 6 p.m. hour) and production assistants (that was King), didn’t generally socialize. “The newsroom hierarchy,” CBS This Morning cohost King recalled in their O Interview.Â
But with a heavy snow coming down, Winfrey invited the $12,000-a-year PA to sleep at her house. “The next day,” said Winfrey, “we went to the mall.” And a friendship was born over Casual Corner sweaters.Â
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Serena Williams & Meghan Markle
Sure, your friend dates likely don’t involve watching your pal play for Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles or get-togethers at a palace. But the bond between the tennis champ and the Duchess of Sussex began much like any otherâover girl talk. “We hit it off immediately,” Meghan wrote on her now-shuttered lifestyle website The Tig of their meeting at a 2014 Super Bowl event. “Taking pictures, laughing through the flag football game we were both playing in, and chatting not about tennis or acting, but about all the good old fashioned girly stuff.”
Sophie Turner & Maisie Williams
Game of Thrones may have wrapped, but the relationship between the Stark sisters lives on. In fact Williams, who served as Turner’s maid of honor when she wed Joe Jonas in 2019, is convinced the best thing to come of the eight-season HBO hit wasn’t any of its 12 Emmy awards. “It was like one big elaborate thing to find me a best friend. This whole show!” she joked to E! News at the final season premiere. “I’m kidding. It’s been incredible. To have a friend like that on something as wild as this is just like a godsend, really.”Â
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Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds & Taylor Swift
Whose heart didn’t melt watching Reynolds and Lively excitedly react to hearing their eldest daughter James’ open Swift’s “Gorgeous” track in concert? Lively later called the viral video embarrassing, telling Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts it was “the true, unfiltered version of our terrible stage parent pride.”
But the trio’s friendship, which involves Fourth of July gatherings at Swift’s Rhode Island manse, stays at the couple’s New York country home and cameos in Swift’s music videos, is pure and should be protected at all costs.Â
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Reese Witherspoon & Jennifer Aniston
Friends gifted Aniston with more than one goals-worthy bestie. Before she and Witherspoon developed their Apple TV+ series, The Morning Show, they portrayed sisters on the NBC hit. “I was 23 years old and had just had a baby,” the Oscar winner recalled to Harper’s Bazaar of her two-episode arc back in 2000. “I was nursing Ava [Phillippe] on set, and Jen just kept going, ‘You have a baby?’ I was like, ‘I know, it’s weird.’ And I remember her being like, ‘Where are you going?’ And I was like, ‘I’m pumping!'” Though Witherspoon felt admittedly nervous, she said Aniston couldn’t have been more sweet: “We’ve been friends ever since.”
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Martha Stewart & Snoop Dogg
Equal parts intriguing and covetable, this pairing was solidified at The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber in 2015 before they teamed up for their VH1 cooking show, Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party. “She different, ya know, than what I’m accustomed,” the marijuana-loving 17-time Grammy winner told LA Weekly of the Westchester-based domestic doyenne. “But then again she’s so what I’m accustomed to. ‘Cause she people. She just look different and she was born in a different era, but if you hang out with her and chill with her, she just like anybody else. That’s why it works, because she never says nothing that’s crazy in my ears. It’s always like, ‘Damn, I thought you would say that. OK.’ That’s why we get down, that’s why we connected, Martha. ‘Cause it feels like holy matrimony, and not holy macaroni.”
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