Today's Evil Beet Gossip

James Franco Got A Professor Fired for Giving Him A Bad Grade

A photo of James Franco

Awww, poor little James Franco! He works so hard getting all those degrees, and some mean old professor thinks he can get away with giving him a D! Not so fast, meany pants! Sure, Franco missed 12 classes, and yeah, there were only 14 classes in total, but I bet he worked really, really hard for those two classes! You’re just jealous! I’m glad you got fired!

Yes, this happened. A professor at NYU is claiming that he was fired for giving James Franco a D and also for being Hispanic, and now he’s suing the university:

José Angel Santana — who taught Franco in his “Directing the Actor” class — is now suing the University for his job back, claiming he was wrongfully terminated … because he’s an Hispanic man with the audacity to give Franco a low grade.

When people found out that Santana gave Franco a D, Santana claims he suffered all sorts of public humiliation — at the hands of James Franco … and the University itself, which ultimately fired him … something he claims would never have happened to a white professor.

According to Santana, other teachers played favorites with Franco, including fellow professor Jay Anania … who Franco hired to write and direct the film “Shadows & Lies.”

Santana groused, “In my opinion, they’ve turned the NYU graduate film degree into swag for James Franco’s purposes, a possession, something you can buy.”

Can you see this happening?  Because I certainly can. Franco’s always been a bit full of himself, and he’s not exactly known for his maturity. It’s completely plausible that he would have the gall to throw a fit for almost failing after missing 12 out of 14 classes, and it’s also completely ridiculous. I’ve had professors that automatically fail students after two unexcused absences, and I thought that was fair. Man, if I was in James’ class, I would be completely pissed that he even got a D. I’d be like “fail that son of a bitch, he doesn’t care, he’s hosting the Oscars.” Ugh.

What do you guys think?

7 CommentsLeave a comment

  • If he hadn’t mentioned the whole “hispanic” thing, I would have bought the story. Now he just seems a bit jealous and childish.

    Btw, I don’t get why people get so caught up in the whole attendance thing. I remember a mandatory class in first semester, that was incredibly stupid and was taught by a really condescending teacher… I showed up for tests, got A’s and that was it. Had I been required to go I would have either fallen asleep, been a complete bitch to our asshole teacher, or murdered each and every single one of my classmates. I say it should be the student’s choice, since you’re only hurting/helping yourself by not showing up.

  • No, comparing a first semester mandatory class to a grad school seminar (and a workshop, no less) is silly. It’s nothing like the same. I just finished my MA in creative writing, and most of my classes had a no-absences policy — the exception being if we were at a professional conference or interview. It’s just not true that you’re “only hurting . . . yourself by not showing up.” In a workshop, most of which have a small number of students, when you don’t show up, you are not there to critique and respond to your colleagues’ work, you are not there to contribute to the discussion in the class. Very little graduate work is learned from a textbook — so if there is no textbook, and he doesn’t show up to class, what has he learned? Nothing. And if he’s not there to learn, and doesn’t want to be, he doesn’t need to be taking up a spot in graduate school that should belong to a student who sincerely wants to be there and learn (/rant).

    • I fully agree with you! Although there are classes that you can learn a lot in without attending in undergraduate school (especially when the prof is an idiot like some I’ve had in the past), graduate school is a different story. Particularly in this field. I think the prof was justified in giving him a D, but I don’t really know why he was fired… I mean what did they say to him “You pretty much failed Franco, so we’re gonna have to let you go”?!

  • I would have thought that the university would have cared more about their academic reputation than this, but some of these really competitive writing programs are all about the agents/deals/influence (). So, who knows? I imagine they thought giving Franco a D would hurt their ability to bring in dollars.

  • He’s compelling and all but he sucks for this. What an ego. If he got a D, then he must earned it and he should own it and commit to a do-over like the rest of us mortals. There’s no integrity in being offered so much slack and actually taking it. And being from that area, NYU like ‘owns’ downtown so what the hell are they all worried about as far as they rep with the rich and famous. Maybe they’re worried they’ll build an increasingly bad rep for not being able to sell high grades.