With acting, directing, academia and musicianship among the myriad strings to his bow, James Franco may be the busiest man in Hollywood. Which is all very well – unless you happen to live next door to him: a couple who are neighbours of the star have accused him of running a "major production company" out of his LA home with scant regard for the disruption it causes.
An anonymous email from the couple was recently published by website Curbed Los Angeles, detailing the alleged horrors of living next door to a figure who seems to have a new project on the go every five minutes. Moreover, the email claims, while a constant flow of his employees and collaborators streams in and out of the $750,000 compound in Franco himself does not appear to be living there.
"At first, my partner and I were pleased to have Mr Franco living next door," the email says. "His work in Milk and his academic pursuits made us happy he was on our street. That is no longer the case."
"If, in fact, Mr Franco has purchased the house next door, it does not appear to be inhabited by the actor; it does appear to be inhabited by several people who are working for him. In addition, over the course of the last weeks the individuals living on the property appear to be running a MAJOR production company out of the house and have also used it for shoots. To be fair, they did provide us with notice for one shoot. Unfortunately, the occasional film shoot comes with living in Los Angeles."
"But this appears to be way more than just a film shoot: the property has become a production house. In fact, Iris, who works for the actor informed me that they are running production from the house. Iris is the same individual who, when we complained to her a few weeks ago about constantly blocking our driveway said, 'Have you guys met James?' Yeah, that's not going to make it better."
The email goes on to claim that "crowds of people" constantly stream in and out of the property, while some use the area outside the couple's property for business meetings. "[They] treat us as if we are eavesdropping sycophants when we walk out our gate to our car; and as I write this, they've set up hair and makeup in their driveway," complains Franco's neighbour. "When I asked Iris about this, Iris basically informed me they could do whatever they want on their property. Really? Running a production of such impact and magnitude in a residential area doesn't violate any zoning restrictions? Are there no limits to the kinds of businesses one can run?"
"We like James Franco and we like some of his movies," the anonymous complainant signs off. "But we're not so enamoured of his presence that we are willing to give up our sanity in our own home."
Franco is a famously workaholic multi-hyphenate who, alongside his acting interests, finds time to play in a band, Daddy, has a recurring role on the US soap General Hospital and has taught film and English classes at academic institutions such as USC, NYU, UCLA and CalArts. The former New York University graduate film student debuted his directing debut, Interior. Leather Bar at Sundance in January, where it received a lukewarm response from critics. The festival also saw the screening of Linda Lovelace biopic Lovelace, in which Franco plays Hugh Hefner, and S&M documentary Kink, on which he was a producer. He recently revealed plans to adapt James Ellroy's 1995 novel American Tabloid, about a trio of government agents whose lives become entangled with the assassination of John F Kennedy.
None of this presumably holds much water for those living next door to Franco's LA property. Neither the actor nor any member of his production company Rabbit Bandini Productions has yet commented on the complaints.
News Source:
www.guardian.co.uk
