Dear Anyone Who Wrote Articles this Week with Headlines Like “Where Does James Franco Go From Here?” and “James Franco: Will He Ever Act Again?”:
Take a cue from JF. Hang loose. Calm down. Relax. Reeeee-lax. Seriously. Will James Franco ever work again? Really. “Will we be able to take him seriously as an action star in the Planet of the Apes prequel?” Go ahead and read that sentence again. To everyone talking this week about how his primary occupation these days is the deconstruction of his own celebrity, thanks for the update. “His stint on General Hospital was performance art.” Guess what? Any decent art is. And performance anxiety keeps a lot of people from doing their own creative thing. The fear of being defined by someone else, by a critic, a genre, a style, whatever. Most interesting artists have been there. At some point, you realize how silly it is. You get over it, you grow up. It turns out you can write serious essays and fiction some days and blogs about James Franco and how Netflix is like NATO others.
All the media writers dumping on Franco and asking these puffed up questions about gravitas and believability (verisimilitude, to you writer friends) are outing themselves either as silly, members of the Academy, or both. Talk about self-important. Talk about out of touch. I’m not saying Franco’s particular brand of awesome plays in the mainstream the same way it does in the post-ironic haunts I like to pretend exist in all parts of the grown-up world. But it’s still awesome. It’s still about perspective. It’s still just the Oscars. It’s still just movies. Relax, friends. Reeee-lax.
Judd Apatow, if you’re reading: how about a script for Freaks And Geeks: 10 Year Reunion. It’s 1991. Nick Andopolous opened once for the Melvins. Sam is an FBI psychologist. Karen works for a paper company in Pennsylvania. Daniel is exactly the same, except famous. I’d watch that every day.
Chris Cocca 
A Mercedes Benz ad? I didn’t know the Germans had a right brain. Live and learn. As for James Franco, I’m sure getting a paycheck might be in his goals as well.
It’s amazing what you can find using StumbleUpon.
Agreed. People need to relax when it comes to James Franco’s acting career. And I say that as a non-Franco fan (he just squints too much….always squinting. All the time.)
I think that’s just how he looks. Or maybe if he didn’t squint, the sheer smolder of his eyes would melt our faces. Sort of like how Scott Summers has to wear red quartz sunglasses.
Well, Scott Summers had laser eyes to annihilate his enemies. James Franco just looks shifty…always squinting with shifty eyes. He’s always up to no good…or he just has extremely sensitive corneas. I’m not sure which yet.
I’m going with smolder.
I love the left-right brain illustration by Mercedes Benz. It’s a keeper. As for James Franco, it’s great when everyone’s wondering about you, your career and what you’ll do next. Isn’t that how people become famous for being famous? K
heh heh. that’s how people who fall into fame do it. but my boy has talent as well. I agree…the mystery quotient helps!
I fell in love with Franco after seeing Pinapple Express. He can do no wrong in my book anymore!
He was great in that movie.
Franco has that understated, absent-but-here demeanor down. Sure, it looks like he’s stoned, but lots of actors have a schtick like that. I didn’t understand the antis that tromped all over the Oscars. What’s the big deal?
Puffed up, self-important moralists?
Wait. Are you talking about sports writers?
them too.
Oh man! How I miss Freaks and Geeks! I don’t understand all the uproar, who thought that James and Anne would actually be entertaining for 4 hours? They met my expectations of overacting and making high look oh so attractive.
Agreed. Relax~ Franco will always be my hero :)
His performance in Milk was awesome. I thought him doing the Marilyn Monroe/drag thing was hilarious!