January 14, 2012 | Celeb Watch

James Franco goes gay ... again

Once again, James Franco (inset) is going gay for an upcoming movie. He has been cast as famed queer photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe.

The biopic, named Mapplethorpe, focuses on his work as part of the New York art scene and his sexually explicit photography. The film is being produced by Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku, with Nate Dushku and Miles Levy.

Mapplethorpe died of AIDS in 1989 at the age of 42, leading to the establishment of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which promotes his work and funds HIV research.

This is just the latest role in Franco's portfolio involving a gay character. He played Harvey Milk's lover in Milk, and beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl. He also produced the short documentary, Endless Idaho, looking at Gus Van Sant's gay-themed movie My Own Private Idaho; and wrote and directed The Broken Tower, a 90-minute docudrama about gay poet Hart Crane, who committed suicide by jumping off the steamship SS Orizaba.

Franco, for the record, is straight. Uhm, okay.