TONI GAAL

James Franco and his co-defendants have agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging he intimidated students at an acting and film school he founded into gratuitous and exploitative sexual situations.

The actor agreed to a settlement in a class-action suit led by two of his former students, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, at his now-shuttered Studio 4 school.

FILE - This Sept. 5, 2019 file photo shows James Franco at the premiere of HBO's "The Deuce" third and final season in New York. A settlement deal has been reached in a lawsuit that alleged James Franco intimidated students at an acting and film school he founded into exploitative sexual situations. A filing in Los Angeles Superior Court said a settlement had been reached in the class-action suit brought by former students at the now-defunct Studio 4. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)LOS ANGELES – A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit that alleged James Franco intimidated students at an acting and film school he founded into gratuitous and exploitative sexual situations, attorneys for the plaintiffs said Saturday. In a subsequent interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Franco called the sexual misconduct stories about him inaccurate, but said, “If I’ve done something wrong, I will fix it.

Two actresses have sued James Franco and the acting and film school he founded, saying the actor intimidated his students into gratuitous and exploitative sexual situations. Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, former students at Franco's now-closed Studio 24, filed the suit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit says Franco pushed his students into performing in increasingly explicit sex scenes on camera in an "orgy type setting." The suit also alleges "the school's true goal was creating a constant pipeline of women Franco and others could exploit professionally and place in compromising sexual situations." James will not only fully defend himself, but will also seek damages from the plaintiffs and their attorneys for filing this scurrilous publicity seeking lawsuit."