James Franco is breaking his silence about trying to pick up 17-year-old Lucy Clode on Instagram. The messages and pictures he sent her were leaked by a friend of Clode’s and were subsequently published across several media platforms this week.
During an appearance Live! With Kelly and Michael on Friday morning, he admitted he was “embarrassed” by the situation.
"I guess I'm just a model of how social media is tricky. It's a way people meet each other today,” he said. "I used bad judgment and I learned my lesson,” USA Today reports.
He went on to say it’s “doubly embarrassing” because of his fame.
"I have a very good life, but not only do I have to go through the embarrassing rituals of meeting someone, sometimes if I do that, then it gets published for the world. So now it's doubly embarrassing."
As we previously reported, Franco tried to meet up with Clode after they met at a showing of his Broadway play Of Mice and Men
Some believe the incident is a publicity stunt for his film Palo Alto, during which a similar situation plays out – his character hits on an underaged girl.