Yesterday news got out that a former NYU professor, José Angel Santana, had filed a lawsuit against the university, claiming he was fired after giving super famous student James Franco a "D" in his class. Does James Franco get special treatment in life because he appears in movies with adorable little primates and because he can probably hypnotize people with that smile? Yes, that's all true. But NYU is insinuating that Santana's time up at the school had nothing to do with him not treating the actor to the grades he's entitled to.
In a statement to the NY Post, NYU spokesman John Beckman says, "It is regrettable and disappointing to see a faculty member—former or otherwise—discuss any student's grade for the purpose of personal publicity," adding that they didn't fire him, they just didn't renew his teaching contract (this guy definitely didn't get a "D" in PR class).
Santana claims that Franco publicly ridiculed him after he received the grade, but the only interview we could find where he discusses it, Franco calls his former teacher both "funny" and "decent." Can someone turn this into a James Franco Erotic Fan Fic piece, where James sleeps with a cougar professor for good grades or something... more original? Anything, really. Anything is more interesting than how this is so obviously playing out (spoiler alert: after each side slanders the other in the papers, no one gets rehired, and this is settled out of court).
