SNOOZE AND LOSE: James Franco, who was caught dozing off during a Columbia University lecture, didn’t even show up for most of a film-directing course at NYU, says the class’ professor, José Angel Santana, whose lawsuit accuses the school of firing him to win the actor’s favor. (AP)
James Franco, who was caught dozing off during a Columbia University lecture. (TMZ.com / Splash News)
José Angel Santana (Robert Miller)
James Franco’s tired James Dean act got an NYU professor booted from the school last year — after the teacher dared to give the overhyped Hollywood hunk a “D” for blowing off class, a lawsuit charges.
José Angel Santana said he slapped the “127 Hours’’ star with the bad grade because he missed 12 of his 14 “Directing the Actor II” classes while pursuing a master’s in fine arts.
Santana said he then suffered all kinds of drama — first from Franco, who publicly ridiculed him, then from his department, which axed him over the “D.”
“The school has bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment, that’s for sure,” Santana, 58, told The Post. “The university has done everything in its power to curry favor with James Franco.”
Santana, who is suing NYU in Manhattan Supreme Court for his job back, asserts that Franco, whose career took off after a 2001 portrayal of James Dean, acted like a rebel without a clue in his other courses, too, blowing off just as many classes. But the star’s other professors at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts still gave him good grades, Santana said.
Big names such as Franco’s typically translate into big bucks for universities.
After his student gig, Franco, 33, wound up teaching an NYU course this past fall on adapting poetry into short films.
Santana suggested that the good grades Franco received were payback to the actor for hiring one of his other professors, Jay Anania.
Franco hired Anania to write and direct the film “William Vincent,” which starred Franco, the suit states. The film was featured at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.
“In my opinion, they’ve turned the NYU graduate film degree into swag for James Franco’s purposes, a possession, something you can buy,” Santana said.
Santana also blasted the graduate film department chairman, John Tintori, for allegedly creating a conflict of interest when he appeared in a cameo in a film financed by Franco and written and directed by Anania, the court records reveal.
Neither Anania, Tintori nor a spokesman for NYU returned calls for comment. A rep for Franco had no immediate comment.
And Santana griped that Franco got it all wrong when, speaking out about his grade, he asserted that the professor had a problem having a celebrity in his class.
“I did the work,” Franco told Showbiz411.com last year. “I did well in everything else.”
Santana’s lawyer, Matthew Blit, a notable employment lawyer, said Franco was trying to cast the prof as a fool for giving a Golden Globe-winning actor a bad grade.
Santana is not the only one unmoved by Franco’s work behind the camera.
A Variety magazine review this year of his film “The Broken Tower,” about American writer Hart Crane, blasted Franco’s work as a director as “simply misguided and often quite tedious.”
The film is among 13 works — most short films or documentaries — directed by Franco.