(Cover) - EN Showbiz - James Franco's has been accused of skating through his college course with high marks even though he was hardly there.

The Hollywood star's former New York University professor Jos Angel Santana claims that he was fired for giving James a "D" grade in his Director the Actor II class, which was lower than what he was receiving from other tutors.

Santana alleges that James missed 12 out of the 14 classes he should have attended and is now suing NYU to get his job back as he believes he was only let go for giving the actor a bad score.

"The school has bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment, that's for sure," Santana told The New York Post. "The university has done everything in its power to curry favour with James Franco."

Santana also alleges that NYU gave the 127 Hours star good grades even when he missed a lot of his other classes.

But James spoke last year to Showbiz411.com and said he "did the work" and deserved the good evaluations he received.

"In my opinion, they've turned the NYU graduate film degree into swag for James Franco's purposes," Santana continued. "A possession, something you can buy."

James was enrolled in a fine arts degree course at the Big Apple institution. He was famously mocked by fellow students when he was pictured fast asleep during a lecture at Columbia University back in March 2009.

James was later hired by NYU as a lecturer and taught classes on adapting poetry into short movies. The Oscars host has directed 13 short films and documentaries but his recent offering, The Broken Tower, was called "quite tedious" by Variety magazine. (C) Cover Media