James Franco slams theater critic on Instagram

James Franco’s Instagram account is buzzing with controversy yet again.

The A-list actor lashed out at New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley on Thursday for his less-than-positive review of the new Broadway revival of “Of Mice and Men,” in which Franco stars as George.

Through a caption on his Instagram account, the irate celeb said that Brantley and the newspaper “have embarrassed themselves,” and went on to call the seasoned theater critic “such a little [expletive].”

Yikes!

It seems that Franco quickly realized the error of his ways, removing the photo soon after he posted it, but not before Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson could take a screenshot and subsequently tweet the find.

Although Brantley’s review painted a lackluster picture of the production in some ways — Brantley wrote that the live dog on stage felt “human, in a way that none of the people did” — he did refer to Franco and co-star Chris O’Dowd as “undeniably leading men.”

Despite working as the Times’ chief theater critic since 1996, Brantley got a major slam from Franco, when the actor claimed in the Instagram post that “the theater community hates [him].” The reason? “He’s an idiot,” wrote Franco, 35.

Brantley responded to the New York Observer, saying that Franco is “entitled to say whatever he likes about me, as long as it’s not libelous.” Brantley also added that he doesn’t think “little [expletive]” qualifies as such.”

Franco was in the news recently for using his Instagram account to flirt with a 17-year-old girl visiting New York City to see the same play while it was in previews.