James Franco lashes Gawker for "gay rape" story

Actor James Franco has revealed how offended he was after the website Gawker polled readers to determine which celebrity was most likely to be behind a 2008 blind item in the New York Post on a gay rape. "Gawker picked that up and did this 'Gay Rapist' story that so f*ucking offensive because I have friends who have been raped," he told an interviewer for The Huffington Post. "They did a very classy online reader's poll asking which actor who had a big movie out that summer had beaten up and raped his boyfriend and then paid him off so it wouldn't go to court... My lawyer called them and said that it was completely untrue and to take it down. They said, 'Well, we're just reporting what the New York Post told us. If James wants to make a comment on our blog, we're happy to report it.' It was a choice. Either let this thing build and become bigger and bigger, or just let it go and let them be the petty scumbags that they are."

The actor, who has been an outspoken advocate for gay equality and challenged the movie industry's traditional wariness around homosexuality with a series of powerful gay roles which he has never felt the need to explain, also spoke about his discomfort with the script he was given as co-host, with Anne Hathaway, of this year's Oscars ceremony. "I felt kind of trapped in that material. I felt, This is not my boat. I'm just a passenger, but I'm going down and there's no way out," he told the website.