sundance report

James Franco’s Homage to Three’s Company Draws a Crowd

Last night at Sundance, James Franco wore many hats (or, to put it perhaps more accurately, he wore many wigs). As a director and artist, Franco was in Park City for the unveiling of Three’s Company: The Drama, a sitcom-deconstruction-cum-multimedia-installation in the Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier section. With the help of some friends donning cheap wigs, Franco re-created an episode of Three’s Company sans laugh track (and with the sex jokes and desperation amped up), then projected that footage on all four walls of a small room filled with wicker furniture that itself re-created the sitcom’s main apartment set. As weird as that was, though, it couldn’t compare to when Franco put on a blond Suzanne Somers wig at the installation’s after-party (modeled after the sitcom’s hangout, the Regal Beagle, of course) and began to sing.

In the crowded room, as celebrities like Eliza Dushku, Rick Fox, and original Three’s Company alum Richard “Larry Dallas” Kline looked on, Franco and performance artist Kalup Linzy (also wigging out) belted out “Chewing Gum,” a song from their arty band Kalup and Franco with lyrics like “This ain’t no chewing gum” and “You’re just a fuck, you hot mess.” Franco also sang the Three’s Company theme song during his art exhibit — perhaps he’s warming up for the de rigueur moment when the host bursts into song at the Oscars?

Here’s footage from the installation, with a puzzled Dushku and Fox taking it all in:

James Franco’s Homage to Three’s Company Draws a Crowd