James Franco digitally erased from Vanity Fair cover

James Franco has been erased from the front cover of Vanity Fair over concern about claims of sexual misconduct made against the star.

Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Franco had posed with 12 other actors in front of photographer Annie Leibovitz for the cover of the magazine’s annual Hollywood special, a pre-Oscars celebration of the year in Tinseltown.

However, days after winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance in The Disaster Artist earlier this month, Franco was the subject of a Los Angeles Times article in which five women described being harassed or sexual exploited by the 39-year-old star.

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Franco is nowhere to be seen in Vanity Fair cover released today, which features stars including Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman and Harrison Ford.

A spokesperson for Vanity Fair confirmed that he had been digitally removed from the line-up: “We made a decision not to include James Franco on the Hollywood cover once we learned of the misconduct allegations against him.”

The news came hours after it was reported that Casey Affleck, who was sued by two female crew members for alleged sexual harassment in 2011, will no longer present the Best Actress statuette at next month’s Academy Awards.

The winner of the Best Actress award is traditionally revealed by the previous year’s Best Actor, but Affleck - who won the award last year for Manchester By The Sea - said he was withdrawing to “keep the focus on the show”.

Franco’s disappearance was not the only aspect of the Vanity Fair cover to set tongues wagging.

Eagle-eyed tweeters noticed that Reese Witherspoon appeared to have spawned a third leg:

The magazine clarified that the effect was an optical illusion caused by the lining of the Big Little Lies’ star’s dress.

Harder to explain was Oprah Winfrey’s “third hand”. One behind-the-scenes photo included in the issue appears to show Winfrey with one hand on her hip, one on her lap and another wrapped around Witherspoon’s waist.

Vanity Fair admitted that one was a mistake.

However, the two stars laughed off the confusion on Twitter, with Witherspoon joking that she hopes fans “can still accept me for who I am” after the revelation of her third leg.