In a new Playboy interview, James Franco comments on a blind item run by the NY Post about an actor who had assaulted and raped his boyfriend. Through an online poll, Gawker connected Franco to the item.

Franco rips Gawker's refusals to remove the post:

One blog thread that he can't abide, though, is the one falsely connecting him with the infamous Gay Rapist blind item that appeared in the New York Post in 2008.

While Franco quickly debunked speculation that he was the anonymous perpetrator — the alleged victim himself insisted that he didn't know him — it didn't stop blogs from running the story — and worse.

"Then Gawker picked that up and did this 'Gay Rapist' story that was so f*cking offensive because I have friends who have been raped," he remembers. "They did a very classy online reader's poll asking which actor who had a big movie out that summer had beaten up and raped his boyfriend and then paid him off so it wouldn't go to court… My lawyer called them and said that it was completely untrue and to take it down. They said, 'Well, we're just reporting what the New York Post told us. If James wants to make a comment on our blog, we're happy to report it.' It was a choice. Either let this thing build and become bigger and bigger, or just let it go and let them be the petty scumbags that they are."

(huffington post via ontd)