Celebrities often play nice with one another in public as a matter of professional courtesy.
But Scarlett Johansson, 33, didn't hold back during her 2018 Women's March speech in Los Angeles on Jan. 20 in which she took on James Franco, who's been accused of sexual exploitation or abuse by multiple women in recent weeks.
James, 39, wore a Time's Up pin to the Golden Globes — where he was honored for his work in the movie "The Disaster Artist" — before some of his accusers came forward on Twitter and in the Los Angeles Times.
"My mind baffles. How could a person publicly stand by an organization that helps to provide support for victims of sexual assault while privately preying on people who have no power?" Scarlett said during her speech at the L.A. Women's March, according to widespread reports, adding, "I want my pin back, by the way." (Her rep confirmed to multiple outlets that she was speaking directly to James in her speech, though she did not mention him by name.)
Days later, five women he'd taught, mentored or work with accused the actor of abuse of power, including during filming of sexually explicit scenes, in a story published by the L.A. Times.
Before most of their allegations came to light, James appeared on Stephen Colbert's late-night show and denied allegations swirling on social media claiming he's behaved inappropriately — especially for someone claiming to back the Time's up movement, for which he reiterated his support.
"The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate. But I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn't have a voice for so long. So I don't want to shut them down in any way," he told the late night host. "If I have done something wrong, I will fix it — I have to. I mean, I think that's how that works. I don't know what else to do."
His attorney later denied the women's individual claims.
Not long after Scarlett lashed out at James, however, she took heat for her perceived hypocrisy: She attacked James though has previously defended another Hollywood star who's been accused of sexual abuse and misconduct without irrefutable proof: filmmaker Woody Allen.
Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? Many social media commenters seemed to think so.
DailyMail.com dug up a 2014 report in which ScarJo defended Woody — she's starred in three of his movies — just a month after his daughter, Dylan Farrow, published an open letter in which she accused him of sexual abuse. "It's not like this is somebody that's been prosecuted and found guilty of something, and you can then go, 'I don't support this lifestyle or whatever.' I mean, it's all guesswork," Scarlett told The Guardian. "I don't know anything about it. It would be ridiculous for me to make any kind of assumption one way or the other."
She also didn't like that people who worked with Woody — who's denied his daughter's claims — were being expected to wade into the controversy. "I think it's irresponsible to take a bunch of actors that will have a Google alert on and to suddenly throw their name into a situation that none of us could possibly knowingly comment on. That just feels irresponsible to me," Scarlett said in 2014.