James Franco covers the December issue of Dazed & Confused to promote his upcoming role as a violent and scuzzy meth dealer in Homefront. The way his face is all painted up only serves to reenforce my theory that Franco and Lady Gaga are actually the same person. ART.

As Kaiser discussed last week, Franco pimped Homefront by “reviewing” 12 Years a Slave. The essay wasn’t so much a review as Franco trashing Michael Fassbender in various ways. Franco can’t stand it when his contemporaries gain more acclaim or better jobs than he does. Remember when he slammed Henry Cavill while “reviewing” Man of Steel in a similar way? Classic douche move.

Before I get to the Dazed interview, there’s something amusing I want to discuss. As we’re all quite aware (because Franco keeps reminding us), Franco is a college professor now. He’s been teaching for a few semesters off and on at UCLA and at NYU. The NYU part is particularly weird because James got one of his NYU professors fired for giving him a “D” grade. James continued to trash the guy after ruining his career, so I was interested to see what Franco’s students would think of him as a teacher.

Now the tide has turned ever so slightly. I don’t know if these reports are true or if some NYU students are messing with Franco. Since one of Franco’s UCLA students revealed to LAWeekly that Jersey Shore is on the syllabus, this NYU stuff could be true too:

* “Amazing class because we got to make a feature film with A list talent. But James seems sleepy and distracted and doesn’t give feedback because he doesn’t read our writing. The concept for the class is great. But James is a joke of a professor.”

* “James is a nice guy, but he’s a really terrible professor. He never grades the papers on time because he is always asleep in class. I once got an F on a test because I wouldn’t share my meatball sub with him. Our improv lessons sucked because he wanted us to be the Green Goblin and chase him around the room. Do not take this class — he reeks of weed.”

[From RateMyProfessors]

Ha. This stuff is funny, right? James was once photographed during a grad school lecture, and Mila Kunis said he fell asleep while cameras rolled on the Oz set all the time. So it’s believable that he’d snooze his way through teaching a class. I can also believe he’d use Spider Man motifs in his improv teachings too because — let’s face it — this is a guy who considers his own butt to be ART. The meatball sub detail? Iffy but still conceivable when it comes to Franco. True or not, these reports are exactly what Franco deserves after getting his own professor fired.

Do we have to talk about the Dazed interview? Not really because it’s more of the usual Franco drivel. You can read some excerpts here, but the highlight is that Franco wants Hollywood filmmaking to “all come back to the art of I.” Of course.

Photos courtesy of Dazed & Confused