Scarlett Johansson sparks huge backlash for her comments on James Franco

This weekend's Women's March was an inspiring show of solidarity. Millions of women from all over the world (as well as men and children) took to the streets to protest gender inequality, and express their outrage at the sexual harassment and assault scandals that dominated headlines towards the latter end of 2017. Coming off the coattails of the #MeToo, Time's Up Movement and the Golden Globes sartorial blackout, the Women's March appeared to be the perfect time for people to speak about the events of the last year, and the impact that it has on the women's movement.

Many high-profile celebrities joined the masses over the weekend, including Adele, Cameron Diaz, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Schumer. However, one celebrity's well-intentioned jibe at James Franco has landed her in hot water. Scarlett Johansson dubbed the actor a hypocrite for wearing a Time's Up pin to the Golden Globes, in light of him being accused of sexual harassment by five independent parties. However, she quickly came under fire herself for previously defending the alleged child abuser, Woody Allen.

People think there's more than one count of hypocrisy here.

Addressing the 500,000 people who attended the Women's March in downtown Los Angeles, Scarlett Johansson lambasted James Franco's advocacy of the Time's Up movement during this year's Golden Globes awards.

"How could a person publicly stand by an organisation that helps to provide support for victims of sexual assault while privately preying on people who have no power?" she said, before adding "I want my pin back, by the way."

Johansson's impassioned speech didn't go down as well as she hoped, however. People were quick to call her out for defending alleged child abuser, Woody Allen, who has been repeatedly accused by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, of molesting her when she was seven-years-old. The actress has historically lavished praise upon the director, and even said that she would "sew the hems of his pants if he asked me to" back in 2007.

Johansson has worked with Allen numerous times. She starred in 2005's Match Point, 2006's Scoop and 2008's Vicky, Christina Barcelona.

 Johansson's praise of the director only increased after Farrow penned an open letter to The New York Times in 2014 regarding the alleged abuse she endured at the hands of her estranged father. Speaking to The Guardian, the actress asserted: "It’s not like this is somebody that’s been prosecuted and found guilty of something, and you can then go, ‘I don’t support this lifestyle or whatever.’ I mean, it’s all guesswork".

"I don’t know anything about it. It would be ridiculous for me to make any kind of assumption one way or the other. I think it’s irresponsible to take a bunch of actors that will have a Google alert on and to suddenly throw their name into a situation that none of us could possibly knowingly comment on. That just feels irresponsible to me."

Johansson's past defence of Allen has compelled many commentators to brand her as a "hypocrite". One Twitter user wrote, "Funny how Scarlett Johansson called out James Franco (accused by adult women). Yet Scarlett herself was called out by CHILD molestation victim Dylan Farrow for working with Woody Allen time after time. Then she ATTACKED the VICTIM."

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As of now, five women have accused the 39-year-old of sexual misconduct. Four were former students of Franco, and one was allegedly mentored by him. The actor's lawyer has disputed all of the allegations levelled against him, and Franco personally responded to the claims on The Late Show With Seth Meyers. "Look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done. I have to do that to maintain my well being," he said.

"The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate. But I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long. So I don’t want to shut them down in any way.

"If I have done something wrong, I will fix it – I have to."

Woody Allen, like Franco, has consistently denied all allegations of sexual abuse made against him.