James Franco is settling his sexual misconduct lawsuit for over $2 million.
James Franco
The 'Deuce' actor and his partners at his acting school Playhouse West Studio 4 - which opened in 2014 but closed three years later - were sued in October 2019 by Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, who claimed the defendants "engaged in widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behaviour towards female students by sexualising their power as a teacher and an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects".
And although James claimed last year the pair were "attention-hungry" and made "false and inflammatory" allegations for publicity, he has now agreed on a settlement for his two accusers.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, James has agreed to pay $2,235,000 to resolve the lawsuit, and the deal is now being submitted to a Los Angeles judge for approval.
Legal paperwork states: “Here, Tither-Kaplan is getting $670,500 minus $223,500 less in fees going to the lawyers. Gaal will get $223,500 minus $74,500 to the lawyers. And the other students would get almost two-thirds of the remaining pot of $1.341 million with the lawyers total take being around $827,000.”
James has also agreed to “non-economic” terms for the individual plaintiffs, although that is currently the subject of a motion to seal.
It has also been stated that any unclaimed money will go to the National Women’s Law Center.
A statement from the settlement reads: “While Defendants continue to deny the allegations in the Complaint, they acknowledge that Plaintiffs have raised important issues; and all parties strongly believe that now is a critical time to focus on addressing the mistreatment of women in Hollywood. All agree on the need to make sure that no one in the entertainment industry — regardless of race, religion, disability, ethnicity, background, gender or sexual orientation — faces discrimination, harassment or prejudice of any kind.”
Meanwhile, it was previously claimed James agreed to a settlement for the lawsuit in February this year, although the terms of the reported deal were not made public.
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