[quote]People can behave like a diva when they're full blown A list star, not when they're on the way up.
They can (and they do). All they need is Hollywood representation that backs them up and keeps their sociopath shenanigans from being reported by the media.
[quote] numerous insiders have said that Pettyfer beat up his girlfriend.
Also numerous insiders claimed that closet case James Franco beat up his secret boyfriend. Turns out that was based on a Gawker journalist making shit up in a BI deliberately painting James Franco in a bad way. Since then I am very careful about these sort of allegations.
[quote]On August 18, 2008, the New York Post ran a gossip blind item that read: “Which hunk in a summer movie is a violent, closeted homosexual? The heartthrob snuck into his ex's apartment a few months ago and raped him so violently, the ex ended up in the hospital - and the actor paid him $500,000 to keep his mouth shut.”
Back before Denton’s “change of heart," Gawker had a tendency to blindly speculate about gossip blind items—which, for all we know, could be completely made up. But they took particular interest in this one, with then-Gawker writer Richard Lawson penning a follow-up post guessing that the gay rapist might be either Will Smith, Christian Bale, or James Franco, based purely (or rather, impurely) on Internet rumors.
[quote]“And then there's the compelling case of James Franco,” Lawson wrote. “Basically the rumor is that Franco dated the guy about two years ago, and still had a key to his house. Guy goes to an Oscars party, comes back and Franco is waiting for him and then awfulness goes down. He's rumored to have been abusive towards an old girlfriend, also an actor, some five years ago. This makes me sad because James Franco is dreamy and oh if he were gay we'd surely be married next spring, but if he's a raper then I don't want anything to do with him and he should be in jail.”
[quote]Days later, Lawson penned a follow-up post titled:
[quote] (See link) Headline: The People Have Spoken, And They Think James Franco Is a Rapist
[quote]All it did was tally up commenters’ feelings, who voted that among the three baseless candidates, Franco was their choice as likeliest perp. Again, this is all a guessing game, and all of these pieces still live online. The following month, Lawson wrote another Gawker post titled:
[quote] (See link) Headline: "Gay Rapist" Actor Surprisingly Cool About His Sexuality
[quote]The piece was pegged to Franco’s role as Penn’s character’s gay lover in Milk—and a subsequent interview with Out magazine—and, based on no evidence whatsoever, the Gawker article insinuated that Franco was a gay rapist, mentioning “the ominous rumor that he once raped his gay lover.” It also questioned Franco’s sexuality based on his playing two gay roles in films.
[quote]Lawson, who penned all of the aforementioned Franco posts, took to Twitter last night to admit that his posts accusing Franco of being a gay rapist were “baseless” and that he wrote them on the orders of his “boss” (he’s since deleted the tweet), essentially admitting that he’d based them on unsubstantiated claims:
