Seth Rogen Breaks Off Bromance With James Franco Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations, Sticking With Their Movie Love-Child, Marijuana

Anyone who says bromance is dead must be following the twisted saga of Seth Rogen and long-time hetero lifemate, James Franco. The twosome who met as teens on the set of Freaks and Geeks have gone on to collaborate on an impressive 11 films together. But according to Rogen, that streak has officially come to an end.

The reason for the split isn’t creative differences. It’s all to do with allegations of sexual misconduct which have been swirling around Franco since 2018 when five women accused the actor of using his Hollywood film school as a pipeline to feed his sexual exploits.

The lawsuit, which was settled earlier this year for an undisclosed amount, involved allegations of Franco teaching a master class on sex scenes where female participants were filmed performing gratuitous sex acts in an “orgy-like setting” all in the name of education.

Rogen initially stood by his longtime collaborator but has since changed his tune. “I … look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”

These words mark the end of Hollywood’s most famous bromance, but do they also signal bromances, in general, are going the way of the dodo?

While the idea dates back to the days of Julius Ceasar, the term was coined in 1990 to describe the affection skateboarder bros had for one another. In the aughts, films like I Love You, Man invited “bromance” into the pop culture lexicon in a major way, launching a slew of dude-heavy buddy content.

Unfortunately, since then bromances have been portrayed as two knuckleheaded pals who bring out the worst in each other, continually goading one another into acts of infantile selfishness. With this example as our benchmark, it was only a matter of time before life began imitating art.

In the dusty aftermath of another fallen fraternity, it looks like now would be a good time to replace our bromantic talents of belching the alphabet in harmony and enabling not-so-whimsical douchebaggery, with chivalry, respect, and the pursuit of decency. If bromances are to survive, neigh, thrive – they’ll need to evolve or risk forever perishing in a puff of stale bong smoke.

Cover Photo: Barry King (Getty Images)

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