James Franco to Create Deitch Exhibit

James Franco has channeled his “bad boy” artist character on General Hospital into a yet another new medium as part of New York’s Deitch Projects. The 31-year-old actor surprised fans when he signed on for an arc on the soap opera, but it seems to fit into a grander plan. Franco will participate in a Deitch exhibition that will be taped and included in a “special episode” of General Hospital. “One more layer will be added to this already layer-heavy experiment,” Franco wrote of his stint in The Wall Street Journal. “If all goes according to plan, it will definitely be weird. But is it art?” Time will tell, but the star and seemingly eager student has been making the rounds in the art scene—attending Art Basel Miami Beach, presenting at the Guggenheim’s Art Awards, and developing a friendship with Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA's chief curator at large. Franco is also looking to collaborate with Kalup Linzy, a performance artist known for his cross-dressing soap-opera spoof.