James Franco: "visionary artist."

Former Out cover boy James Franco is fascinating. Really. Having broken out of his teen idol phase with a revelatory turn in Milk, the actor (who stars opposite Julia Roberts in the upcoming Eat, Pray, Love) is now busy testing his chops as an artist. In today's Wall Street Journal, Alanna Heiss, the founder and former director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, hails him as "a visionary artist for his generation." Franco's first solo art collection, "The Dangerous Book Four Boys," includes sculpture, photography and drawing, much of it exploring the "sexual confusion of adolescence" in Heiss's words. One piece assumes a romantic relationship between Star Trek's Spock and James. T. Kirk--just the kind of thing guaranteed to keep the "is he, isn't he?" speculation alive. We've no idea either way, but we love his devil-may-care attitude. The show opens at New York's Clocktower Gallery next Wednesday. We guarantee it will be mobbed.