Photo: celebuzz.com

James Franco is more than just a pretty boy at Hollywood. The 34 year old actor has just launched a poetry book, Strongest of the Litter. “These poems, thoroughly beautiful and spare, have the texture of contending angles. Authenticity can be achieved only through different voices: in an investigation of the range and strength of American art, in homage to Williams Carlos Williams, in awe at the cost to American actors of their art (notably Taylor, Clift, De Niro and Brando), in the celebration and limitation of Kowalski love,” goes the publisher’s note. In case you didn’t know, Franco is also an artist, having held an art exhibition in 2010, reffered to by The Wall Street Journal as “sort of creative schizophrenia”. To show his support for the art world, Franco, along with other famous names like Lady Gaga, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, Terry Richardson, Patti Smith or Liv Tyler, have co-signed a letter to the mayor of New York, praising the geographical area of The Rockaways, a haven for the creative community of the city. Devastated by the recent Hurricane Sandy, the area is currently in a bad state, and the artists mentioned above, as well as others, are showing their full support.

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