The ubiquitous James Franco beat a defamation lawsuit brought by a disgruntled NYU professor because the prof’s attorneys couldn’t pin down the actor to properly serve him.
“We will find him,” attorney Matthew Blit promised outside a Manhattan courtroom yesterday.
“We will serve him and we will prevail.”
Blit contends that the award-winning Franco’s own attorney calls him a “nomad” whose itinerant lifestyle means he stays in different hotel rooms every night.
Franco nearly flunked José Angel Santana’s film-directing class in 2011 and then, when asked about the professor’s dismissal from NYU, told reporters, “He was asked not to come back after three years because they didn’t think he was a good teacher.”
The “127 Hours” star also panned Santana by saying he was “awful” and predicting that he’d never be hired to teach again. She’s expected to rule on the NYU claims in the coming days.
Judge Saliann Scarpulla ruled that Blit had “not shown proper service for the defendant” and dismissed the case against Franco.
Franco’s attorney, Jura Zibas, had argued in a February court filing that Santana’s lawyers “relied on gossip rags for their information” about where the actor resided.
She pointed to an exhibit, which was a copy of a “Real Estalker” blog article reporting that Franco had plunked down just under $800,000 for a fixer-upper home in the hipster LA neighborhood of Silver Lake.
A quick look at the globe-trotting heartthrob’s fan Web site, “Finding Franco,” shows that he was at the “Oz” premiere in Tokyo on March 7 and presiding over the Daytona 500 on Feb. 24.
Scarpulla also warned that she had “grave doubts” about the remaining defamation claims against NYU, the second defendant in the case.
At issue was whether, as a part-time professor himself, Franco was representing the university when he criticized Santana.
Franco didn’t insult his former professor, he was merely voicing his own opinion, Scarpulla said.
“If I say a teacher stinks and is bad that’s not actionable,” she added.