The reveal of Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood issue always brings with it much discussion of who's included and who's not—and whether it's a fair representation of Hollywood. This year the online talk also focused on Reese Witherspoon's apparent third leg and Oprah's third hand. The cover also features Nicole Kidman, Tom Hanks, Michael B. Jordan, Zendaya, Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Claire Foy, Harrison Ford, Gal Gadot, Robert DeNiro, and former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter.
Now The Hollywood Reporter has discovered that there was one more actor meant to grace the triple-panel cover: James Franco. Several sources confirmed that Franco did indeed participate in a photo shoot with Annie Leibowitz and gave the magazine an interview but that he was digitally removed after recent allegations of sexual misconduct. According to THR, the photos are often shot in small groups and combined via digital imaging, which made it easier to remove him from the cover. But it's still pretty rare to change a cover image at the very last minute. While it's not known exactly when the decision was made, Vanity Fair did confirm the story with this statement: "We made a decision not to include James Franco on the Hollywood cover once we learned of the misconduct allegations against him."
Talk of misconduct by Franco started bubbling up again on Twitter during the Golden Globes, where Franco won a Best Actor statue while wearing a pin supporting the Time's Up movement. Shortly thereafter, the Los Angeles Timespublished a story featuring a number of women telling their stories about the actor's alleged exploitative behavior. Franco has addressed the accusations, telling Seth Meyers during an appearance on his show, "I have my own side of this story, but I believe in, you know, these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much. And if I have to take a knock because I’m not going to, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will, because I believe in it that much.” But the consequences for his alleged actions are obviously still being felt and this latest example shows that fallout in Hollywood surrounding #MeToo and Time's Up is not slowing down anytime soon.