According a a joint status report filed in L.A. County Superior Court, a settlement agreement has been reached in a lawsuit that accused James Franco of sexual misconduct including sexual coercion and exploitation at his acting school. Franco taught at Studio 4 between 2014 and 2017. The lawsuit, filed by actresses and former students Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal in 2019, accused Franco and his associates Vince Jolivette and Jay Davis of “widespread inappropriate and sexually charged behavior towards female students by sexualizing their power as a teacher and an employer by dangling the opportunity for roles in their projects.†According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit claimed that Franco “sought to create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education,†which included pressuring them into filming “orgy†scenes on camera. However, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the February 11 filing shows that Tither-Kaplan and Gaal “have agreed to drop their individual claims under the agreement.â€