James Franco Fires Back At Oscars Criticism

James Franco and Anne Hathaway's less-than-stellar performance as Oscar hosts may be but a distant memory to most, but there are other members of the Hollywood community who would still like to talk about it.

Longtime Oscar writer Bruce Vilanch spoke about working with Franco at this year's awards, and how the over-scheduled multi-hyphenate's hectic schedule took away from valuable rehearsal time. Franco reportedly sacrificed in-person rehearsals with Vilanch and his team leading up to the show for his own commitments—which include studying at Yale University and popping up on General Hospital now and again. "He has so many balls in the air, he didn't get to town till Thursday before the show on Sunday. And so we e-mailed a lot,” Vilanch told New York. “But we had a lot of meetings. He had a bunch of people who were writing for him, and if it had been him alone, it would have been different. But it was him and Anne Hathaway, and they both had to be serviced. So there was a lot of communication beforehand. But he didn't get there.”

Vilanch also addressed the question on the mind's of many: Had Franco indulged in a little preshow herbal refreshment to calm his nerves? "No, he wasn't high," Vilanch said. "I was with him, and he wasn't high. And I asked him, 'Are you high, and can I have some?' And he said no to both." Glad we got that cleared up.

Shortly after Vilanch’s interview with the mag was posted, Franco fired back on Twitter. “Bruce he let me down,” he tweeted before posting a photo of himself and Vilanch, taking liberties with the colorful captions: “James f— up the Oscars. Trust me, I know comedy. I mean, come on, I write for Bette Midler!” Franco later removed the posts from his account, but Vilanch’s comments obviously struck a chord. Relax, James. Maybe you just can’t do it all? —EMILY EXTON