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James Franco has apologised for contacting a 17-year-old British girl on Instagram.

Lucy Clode from Dollar, Clackmananshire, posted pictures online of the actor outside a Broadway theatre.

The Hollywood star then sent messages to the teenager asking her age, if she had a boyfriend and where she was staying in New York.

Speaking on US television 35-year-old Franco said he used "bad judgement".

The actor and said, "I learned my lesson".

He added: "It's the way that people meet each other today, but what I've learned, I guess because I'm new to it, is you don't know who's on the other end."

"When you meet in person you get a feel for them, you don't know who you're talking to," he added.

The star suggested being a celebrity could make meeting people more difficult.

"Unfortunately in my position, not only do I have to go through the embarrassing rituals of meeting someone, but if I do that, then it gets published for the world so it's doubly embarrassing."

Ms Clode was said to be in New York with her mother for an 18th birthday present.

She told a friend on Instagram: "James Franco asked me to meet him! It was really him and I rejected him!"

James Franco is currently appearing in Of Mice And Men alongside Irish actor Chris O'Dowd on Broadway.

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