Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

James Franco’s Naughty Birthday Cake

James Franco turned 35 on April 19, but the actor saved his birthday bash for a trip to Miami, where he received the HBO Latin America Ally Award for his “unwavering support for the LGBT community” at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Sitting poolside on Tuesday, the actor tweeted a picture of his S and M-themed birthday cake — complete with a strap-on, a ball gag, a leather whip, and more — a nod to his film “Interior. Leather Bar.” a re-imagining of the deleted footage from the 1980 gay-themed film “Cruising.”

Franco, who wrote, starred and directed the film, attended a screening at the MGLFF on Sunday night.

Speaking to the South Florida Gay News, the actor said that queer cinema has had a huge influence on him:

“I have a lot of different connections to the LGBT community and I have a lot of aesthetic or artistic connections or reasons I am interested in queer cinema,” he said. “’My Own Private Idaho’ was a big influence on me in many ways. I watched it when I was in high school and since then.”

Franco, who played the boyfriend of gay activist Harvey Milk in “Milk,” added that he believes that the stigma against a straight man playing a gay character has somewhat abated.

“For a long time [playing gay characters] was seen as something that was harmful to your career,” he said. “I find that it hasn’t hurt me at all, and even if it did hurt me, it wouldn’t deter me from doing the kinds of projects that I want to do.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.