Highlights

• James Franco defended messaging a 17-year-old to Howard Stern in a strange way, trying to justify his actions.
• Franco tried to contrast himself from his film character in discussing his interaction with a young fan.
• James Franco didn't blame the 17-year-old for exposing their messages.

Throughout Howard Stern's lengthy career, the radio host has never shied away from controversy. After all, Stern became extremely rich making jokes that made listeners so angry that he once got beaten up.

Since Stern is comfortable being controversial, it makes sense that other celebrities have spoken to him about their scandals. Still, the way James Franco defended messaging a 17-year-old on Instagram while talking to Stern was shocking.

This article will reveal the way James Franco defended messaging a 17-year-old on Instagram. Then, the article will reveal what Franco told Stern about not being angry at the 17-year-old he was messaging.

James Franco Defended Himself Messaging A 17-Year-Old

In May 2014, James Franco appeared on The Howard Stern Show. During the resulting conversation, Stern and Franco discussed the fact that it had recently been revealed that he was messaging and asking to meet a 17-year-old fan. It is important to note that Franco turned 36 years old in 2014.

While talking to Stern, Franco defended messaging and trying to meet the 17-year-old in a strange way. As Franco told Stern, he wasn't looking to pick up girls outside of a high school.

"The way that the news wants to kind of do it, because these are the flashy headlines, I am pursuing…young women. I'm not going to high schools looking for dates. I'm leaving my work and they're coming there!"

To put Franco's comments in the full context, his film Palo Alto was released around the time of his Stern interview. In Palo Alto, Franco portrayed a high school soccer coach who gets involved with a student. To say that it was bad timing to have it revealed that Franco was messaging a 17-year-old around the time Palo Alto came out is an understatement.

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Given Palo Alto's plot, Franco's comments about not picking up girls at a high school may have been his way of contrasting him from his character in the movie. Still, it is shocking to learn that Franco tried to defend himself by stating that the 17-year-old he messaged came to him.

In 2014, Franco published an article about what led to James Franco's Instagram scandal.

At the time, Franco was performing in a Broadway staging of the classic play "Of Mice and Men". When he was departing the theater one night, he was greeted by a 17-year-old fan named Lucy Clode who took a selfie with the actor. In a video that Clode took, Franco could be heard telling her, "You gotta tag me".

After Clode tagged Franco, the actor and the 17-year-old began trading messages on Instagram which the fan later shared. In the messages, Clode identified that she was 17 years old and turning 18 years old soon.

In their messages, Clode also writes about having to prepare for high school exams. Despite how young Clode was, Franco continued to message her and tried to arrange for them to meet. The two of them even went on to trade texts.

During James Franco's conversation with Howard Stern about the Clode controversy, he spoke about meeting teens because he had a young fan base. "So I'm just seeing attractive women. And look, my fan base is like 17-year-old girls. If I do a book signing, it'll be 17-year-old to 30-year-old women. That's my biggest fan base. So I saw her, and she's saying on her page, 'I love James Franco, blah blah blah.'"

At one point in their conversation, Clode suggests continuing to text Franco after she turned 18 years old. Throughout their messages which happened when Clode was still 17, Franco repeatedly tried to arrange to meet Clode. Franco even went so far as to ask Clode where her hotel was and if he should get a room there.

As the text messages continued, Franco also jumped through hoops to try to get Clode to meet him. Most notably, Franco sent two photos of himself to Clode to identify that it really was him messaging her. In one of the photos, Franco followed Clode's instructions by taking a photo of his face alongside a paper on which he wrote her name.

The most revealing part of Franco's exchanges with Clode comes when she brought up telling her friends about their conversation. In response, Franco simply wrote, "Don't tell".

While talking to Stern about the scandal that ensued after Clode released their messages, Franco even tried to claim he was a gentleman to her. To make that claim, Franco brought up the fact that before asking to meet Clode, he asked if she had a boyfriend.

"I was a gentleman. I said, 'Do you have a boyfriend?' And her response was, 'Not when you're around.' So that, to me, sounds like, okay, she's interested."

James Franco Didn't Blame The 17-Year-Old He Was Messaging For Exposing Him

During James Franco's aforementioned 2014 Howard Stern interview, the actor stated that he didn't blame the 17-year-old he was messaging.

As Franco explained, he didn't blame Lucy Clode because he thought she didn't realize that posting their messages would create a scandal.

"I don't think she posted it knowing what was going to happen. I think she was somebody that had, you know, 100, maybe at the most 500, friends on Twitter, or followers or whatever. And she's thinking not, 'Here's a guy hitting on me,' [but] 'Here is James Franco, this image I have of James Franco, hitting on me. Oh, my god, my friends will never believe this.'"

Franco continued, "So she's just used to tweeting something to her friends and she'll get, you know, 20 likes…[but] when she put that on, obviously people pick up on it. She even took it down. But again, it was too late. And my sense is it turned bad on her."

James Franco then went on to talk to Stern about people who thought he'd blamed Clode for exposing him.

"Now people want to say I victim-bashed her. How is she a victim? I was like anybody, just trying to meet somebody. It's just that my dirty s**t gets put out internationally."