35 Year Old Actor James Franco Takes Heat For Trying To Pick Up A 17 Year Old On Instagram

I'm not sure if you have heard about this story yet but I'm pretty sure it broke yesterday, I saw it in an article on "Gawker". It seems that superstar actor James Franco had a Instagram conversation that he had with a 17 year old from Scotland posted to "Imgur" by her. As I wrote this article I was reminded of an adage I once heard and still give as advice to friends who wonder if a girl is "too young for him". It says that if you want to have a relationship with a girl she has to be at least half your age plus 9. If you just want to "hook up", it's whatever is legal in that sate. (you know you will use it)

Now, If you would like to read all of the details and even see the actual conversation you can click the "Gawker" link above, or check out this story on Elitedaily.com, it has the entire conversation on it.

I however, will try to sum it up as best I can. It seems that the girl in question was visiting N.Y.C. with her mother and caught some video of Franco outside the theater. He saw her taking the video and told her to "tag" him in it, she did.

Once Franco saw the "tag" go up on his Instagram he began to have a text conversation with the girl. In this conversation they are clearly flirting with each other and he is all about meeting her. She does very early in the short conversation mention that this trip to New York City is her 18th birthday present. When he then asks, "you're 18?" she replied,  "nearly 18" and later, when he asks when her birthday is, she says that it is in May.

After asking her about her age, if she has a boyfriend and how long she will be in town for, he does ask where she is staying and asks if he should get a room. At some point the conversation switches to messenger where  he tries to get her to agree to meet up with him, he even takes pictures of himself to send to her to prove it is him, because she says he can see her if he is the real James Franco. It would seem that she merely wanted this "proof" so that she could prove to her friends that he was talking to her and trying to hook up.

So , James tried, has since admitted that he tried, and failed. I gotta be honest that is what gives me embarrassment chills about the whole thing, man he seemed awfully eager and it would seem that she was just about getting the attention. Wow, a 17 year old girl wanting attention, I know I never would have thought it either.

Earlier today Franco was on "Live with Kelly and Micheal" and had this to say:

Interestingly enough, Franco does have a movie coming out shortly about a soccer coach who has a relationship  his 14 year old babysitter. the trailor for the movie "Palo Alto" came out the very same day that he had this conversation with Lucy, the 17 year old Scottish girl. HMMM.

So there you go, what do you think? Knowing the comments that are about to come, I will say this ... as far as I am aware, there is nothing illegal about this conversation even if it had wound up going more his way, I believe the age of consent in N.Y. and where she is from in Scotland is 17. Also, she is a very attractive girl who may not LOOK like she is 17. I'm not defending or bashing him, just thought I'd share some of the viewpoints I have seen so far. I don't know for me, I think the saddest thing about the whole story was the sort of desperation that someone so rich and famous showed just trying to hook up, no matter what the age of the girl in question. And I think it's a really messed up world we live in where people post things like this on line for the world to see. I know it's just how the world works now, but it's sad.

Ok now you can get to bashing. :)