James Franco Takes Dig at Oscar Writer on Twitter

It's no secret that James Franco's hosting job wasn't really up to par. Critics slammed his barely there attitude and general awkwardness during the telecast. But when Oscar joke writer Bruce Vilanch opened up to New York magazine's Vulture blog about Franco's flop, the actor took to Twitter to return a dig at Vilanch.

"He has so many balls in the air, he didn't get to town till Thursday before the show on Sunday," Vilanch told Vulture about Franco's busy schedule. "I don't think he realized how big a deal it is to do it until he was actually confronted with it. I think he thought he would kind of ... I don't know what he thought."

Vilanch, along with pretty much everyone else watching the show, thought it was all some kind of act.

Franco apparently didn't take Vilanch's comments too well, and he tweeted a graffiti-covered picture of himself with Vilanch backstage at the Oscars.

"James f**ked up the Oscars. Trust me, I know comedy," Franco scribbled on the photo, in dialogue bubbles coming from Vilanch's mouth. "I mean, come on, I write for Bette Midler!"

Franco has since deleted the tweet and photo, but Vulture was lucky enough to grab it before he took it down.

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James Franco to Teach a Class About James Franco

If there's one indisputable truism of the 21st century, it's that James Franco can do pretty much whatever he wants. He's one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors (every bit as comfortable in dramas like 'Milk' as he is smoking a cross joint and mumbling "I thought hurricane season was over" in lighter fare like 'Pineapple Express'), and he's not just nominated for an Oscar this year, he's also co-hosting the ceremony. Moreover, the dude is gearing up to direct an episode of soap opera mainstay 'General Hospital,' and it would seem as if he's simultaneously attending approximately 93 percent of the country's finest graduate schools.

But apparently that's not enough, as Movieline is reporting that Franco has tired of spending all his time in academia as a student, and so he'll soon begin teaching a course of his own at Columbia College Hollywood (not affiliated with Columbia University, from which Franco received his MFA in 2010). Professor James Franco might seem like a bit of a stretch, but surely none of Columbia College Hollywood's tenured faculty knows quite as much about the subject of the course: James Franco.

"Master Class: Editing James Franco ... With James Franco" is what the class is called, and according to Columbia College Hollywood's press release, its curriculum will allow "12 of the private film school's best editing students [to] create a 30-minute documentary film from videographic footage from Mr. Franco's own unorthodox career." Yup, students enrolled in the course will dedicate their time to making a short film about James Franco, under the occasional tutelage and guidance of James Franco.

The press release explains: "Mr. Franco's frequent collaborator and editor Tyler Danna is teaching the course ... Mr. Franco is providing the footage -- much of it from behind the scenes on short films he has directed -- and the conception for the course and will speak to the students weekly via live feed (Skype) and attend the weekly class sessions when his schedule allows. The student editors will seek to create a cinematic image of James Franco through the footage."

So ... the course is using Franco as a conduit to explore the parallel notions of public persona and the death of privacy in the 21st century? Or perhaps it's about a celebrity's capacity to reclaim his own image? Or maybe it's just about James Franco doing pretty much whatever he wants. That said, the press release ominously concludes that "the class sessions themselves will be taped and be part of the final film created by the class or another project ... There is the potential to carry the class forward with 12 different editors in the spring quarter and beyond as the film project continues." So what they're saying is that the course could ultimately serve as the foundation of something much larger. Has James Franco stumbled upon an unprecedentedly brilliant and cost-effective means of getting people to make a biopic about himself?

Who knows. All that's clear is that this is James Franco's world, and we're just gawking at it. It actually seems rather neat to us that an actor is using his celebrity to such compelling ends, and making of his life whatever he sees fit, rather than falling lockstep into the pre-determined rules by which all James Dean reincarnates must abide. What say you? Does this bear the footprint of an empowered intellectual, a young man having fun with his life, or a pretty actor drunk on his own ego? And what will he do next?

While you ponder that, check out a video below of Franco at Sundance making up his own foul-mouthed lyrics for the 'Three's Company' theme song.

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James Franco, Black Swan Win Big at the Independent Spirit Awards (omg!)

James Franco | Photo Credits: C Flanigan/FilmMagic.comTV Guide

One day before his hosting gig at the Academy Awards, James Franco took home the award for best male lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Check out our Oscar predictions

When accepting his award, Franco, who is nominated for Best Actor at Sunday's Oscars for his 127 Hours role, thanked his agent, manager and publicist, who told him to take a break from school, saying, "James, you're an effing idiot if you don't do this movie."

After winning the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in Black Swan, Natalie Portman also won the Spirit Award for best female lead. Black Swan also won for best film, and Darren Aronofsky took best director.

Who do you think will win the Oscars?

In what could be a precursor to the big show on Sunday, The King's Speech, the Oscar Best Picture front-runner, won for best foreign film. Meanwhile, Oscar underdog John Hawkes won for best male supporting for his role in Winter's Bone.

British street artist Banksy was not on hand to accept the award for best documentary for his film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, which is also nominated for an Academy Award.

Check out a full list of winners:

Best Film: Black Swan
Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Best Female Lead: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Male Lead: James Franco, 127 Hours
Best Female Supporting: Dale Dickey, Winter's Bone
Best Male Supporting: John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Best Screenplay: Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Best First Screenplay: Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham
Best First Feature: Get Low, Aaron Schneider
Best Cinematography: Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Best Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy
Best Foreign Film: The King's Speech, Tom Hooper

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James Franco, Natalie Portman Take Home Spirit Awards

James Franco and Natalie Portman

Matt Carr/Getty; B. Ach/INF

James Franco can breathe a tiny sigh of relief.

The Oscar host, who is also nominated for Best Actor at Sunday's show, already won a best actor award this weekend – at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday.

"I just went through film school at NYU and finished my thesis film, so independent film means a lot to me," said the actor, who was nominated for his role in 127 Hours as real life adventurer Aron Ralston, who had to sever his own arm when he got trapped under a boulder in 2003.

Natalie Portman, the heavily favored frontrunner for Oscar's Best Actress award, took home the Spirit award for female acting for Black Swan, which also won for best picture and best director for Darren Aronosky on Saturday.

The Oscar Best Picture favorite, The King's Speech, nabbed the Spirit prize for best foreign flm.

Winter's Bone stars John Hawkes and actress Dale Dickey took home supporting actor awards.

The wind gusted and the temperatures dropped outside at the Spirit awards, but inside a very pregnant Portman glowed as she made her way to her table and stopped to say a quick "hello" to fellow actresses Catherine Keener, Sarah Paulson and Amanda Peet. Liev Schreiber also headed to the table to chat with the group and was joined shortly after girlfriend Naomi Watts.

Meanwhile, Kate Walsh had a mini Grey's Anatomy reunion and caught up with former costar Sandra Oh.

Warren Beatty and wife Annette Bening were lovey-dovey throughout the show, as were Jon Hamm and longtime girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt, who sat cozily huddled together at their table.

At one point Bening made time to greet Nicole Kidman with a long hug and to chat with her and husband Keith Urban during a commercial break.

• With reporting by JENNIFER GARCIA and JESSICA WEDEMEYER

• Check out photos from the Indie Spirit Awards

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Emma Roberts, Dave Franco Get Cozy In Cults' 'Go Outside' Supervideo

On Tuesday, a supervideo for Cults' "Go Outside" starring Dave Franco and Emma Roberts debuted on MTV.com.

In the video, Franco plays a character obsessed with 1960s Jean-Luc Godard films. His obsession comes to life when French sex symbol Brigitte Bardot (played by Roberts) steps out of his favorite Godard flick, "Contempt," and into his living room. The two embark on a nightlong romantic escapade throughout Los Angeles, and providing the soundtrack is the dreamy "Go Outside" by New York duo Cults.

The supervideo is actually the second effort in a partnership between MTV and Mean magazine. The first video brought Anna Kendrick and director David Ayer together for LCD Soundsystem's "Pow Pow."

MTV News caught up with Franco and Roberts on the set, where they talked about what it meant to film the video.

"I love Brigitte Bardot," Roberts said. "I've always been drawn to her style, and I just think there's something so timeless about her that she's still such an icon today. And I just thought it'd be fun to get to kind of do a little mini-film to music, and I love the concept and I was excited Davie was a part of it and it's just been really fun."

Of course channeling the iconic bombshell meant going blond for Roberts, which she loved: "I feel like a Barbie doll. I think it's cool."

And a major part of the Bardot persona meant another thing. "We have to make out in the video -- a lot," Roberts added.

While the treatment meant that the two would be getting very intimate, luckily for Franco, he wasn't going in blind.

"We knew each other a little bit before the video," Franco said. "Which is great for this kind of project, where you can kind of jump into it and just have fun with it, rather than trying to get comfortable with each other and literally within 10 minutes of meeting each other, your tongues are in each other's mouths."

From the looks of the video, they got to know each other a lot better by the end.

What did you think of the supervideo? Let us know in the comments!

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Anne Hathaway & James Franco Do Grease's 'You're The One That I Want'

Is James Franco the one that Anne Hathaway wants for the Oscars?

Apparently so, as the Academy Awards co-hosts reenact the iconic carnival scene ("You're The One That I Want") from 1978's Grease in a YouTube clip that the Oscar-nominated actor posted on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

In the 19-second video, Franco slicks back his hair a la John Travolta's Danny Zuko and Hathaway shakes her tush – clad in the skin-tight leather pants made famous by Olivia Newton-John's Sandy Olsson.

Will this homage to Grease be included in their Oscars telecast? You'll have to tune into the 83rd annual Academy Awards, airing live Sunday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) on ABC, to find out!
– Janet Mock

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Does James Franco Have Anne Hathaway's Oscar Vote?

Franco (left) and Hathaway

AP(2)

James Franco will be pulling double duty at this year's Academy Awards, as both a host and a nominee.

So will fellow emcee Anne Hathaway show him some love by throwing her vote his way for Best Actor in 127 Hours?

Unfortunately for Franco, she's not saying.

"Actually, the ballot says on the front: 'Important, do not tell anyone, especially The Hollywood Reporter," she laughs during an interview with magazine, the pair's first together, before adding diplomatically, "I'm a big fan of James's performance."

As for what viewers can expect come Sunday night, THR reports that organizers will stage the Oscars as a visual journey through movie history, with Franco and Hathaway travelling back in time in an opening montage. They'll end up inside a digitally-enhanced "virtual" set.

One thing we won't see: The actors ribbing their fellow thespians, a la Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes.

"I can guarantee that if you're looking for someone to call people out, we're not your hosts," Hathaway, 28, says. "I think that humor is really difficult to pull off, and I'm not particularly adept at it. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it. Also, I don't mean to sound overly serious, but I am the youngest host in history and I have no business being cynical or calling anyone out. I certainly haven't earned the right to do that."

Asked whether Aron Ralston, whom Franco, 32, played in 127 Hours, might show up on stage at some point, the actor says, "Who knows? Aron is full of surprises. I'm sure he'll find his way into the show."

Franco – who says he's just learning how to use Twitter and "it might be fun" to try Tweeting during the show – also says he's managed to reduce some of the pressure of being a nominee.

"Well, nobody is shy about saying Colin Firth is going to win [for The King's Speech]," he says. "I've accepted that. By hosting, it makes it easier to go to the events and not feel like a total schmo."

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James Franco, Mom and Grandma Join Twitter

It's embarassing enough for a normal person when their family members enter the social networking game and exponentially more so when that person is famous, or so one would think.

Oscar nominee James Franco has just found out how it feels, now that his mother and grandmother have joined Twitter. Luckily for the '127 Hours' star, their tweets have been pretty benign (and adorable) so far.

Franco, who joined Twitter today, is not following his family just yet, but might want to get in on the action while he's still the topic of conversation.

James' grandmother, Mitzie, who writes as @GrandmaMitz, has recently joined other "#mominees," a group of women on Twitter whose children are up for Oscars, and has, in a short time, expressed not only her pride for her grandson, but a period of time spent in Japan and her recent fashion choices.

"Just selected #Oscars gown. Designed by Madame Kiraly 35 yrs ago. Understated Japanese kimono fabric. Had to let out the seams. #mominees," she wrote.

Her account includes fan gold like, "James was very curious about everything from the time he was born--had an amazing attention span," and "No, I don't know how James does it all. Guess he thrives on creativity."

In addition to the Franco family, other Oscar nominees' moms have joined the movement, including 'The Fighter' director David O. Russell's mom, Theresa, and 'Toy Story 3' director Lee Unkrich's mom, Emilie.

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