Busy Philipps‘s brand-new memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, has earned rave reviews from countless friends and fans since its release earlier this month. But on Thursday night’s episode of Watch What Happens Live, the actor expressed some dismay at the level of coverage a certain excerpt is receiving.
In one section of her memoir, Philipps details the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of James Franco when they both starred on the show Freaks and Geeks as teenagers. Philipps told Cohen that she was disappointed by the media’s incessant coverage of the story, not only because it overshadowed the rest of her book, but also because it put so much attention on a man’s story rather than on the woman who wrote that story. “It really bummed me out because I felt like, I’m a woman in this industry who wrote a very personal book about my experiences in life and in this industry,” she said, “and the headlines were all about a man. I was like, that was my point the whole time.”
The incident in question allegedly happened on the Freaks and Geeks set, during a scene where her character hit Franco’s character in the chest. That action, she wrote, prompted him to scream, “Don’t ever touch me again” at Philipps before allegedly throwing her to the ground. Philipps told Cohen that Franco had apologized and that she hasn’t spoken to the actor in some time. She added that she was particularly surprised by the reaction to the Franco story because she’d actually already told the story on, coincidentally, a previous episode of Watch What Happens Live.
Philipps also addressed the issue on Instagram earlier this month. “My book is 308 pages, not one paragraph,” she wrote. “The Franco story is used to illustrate a larger point about the way women are treated in this business and in life. There are no ‘allegations’ and no ‘accusations.’ It’s a story that I have been telling for years. James apologized. I accepted.”
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