James Franco Tweets Pics of Oprah, Backstage Videos While Hosting Oscars

For a new Twitter user, James Franco has ramped up quickly. The actor, who just joined the social networking site earlier this month, unleashed a torrent of tweets Sunday providing a unique behind-the-scenes look at the Academy Awards that may have not pleased Oscar producers, but thrilled fans.

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Prior to the show, Franco tweeted his pre-Oscar morning. But it was during the show is when he really ramped up the frequency of his tweets.

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Among the messages (many simply links to videos) Franco sent out Sunday?

A video of his and co-host Anne Hathaway telling audience members they all snack bars under their seats, a videotaped short chat between Franco and one of the writers of the show, Franco getting a hand massage from Hathaway and one short video where Franco says, smiling, “it might be bad,” before the show began Sunday evening.

It was a curiously candid series of tweets that verged on experimental art at times, perhaps unsurprising considering Franco currently has several installations up at galleries around the world, including one which just opened this weekend at Beverly Hills’ Gagosian gallery.

Using the hashtag #oscarsrealtime, the thespian told a story altogether different than the official Oscar telecast that ABC viewers saw, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to many who followed Franco’s tweets along with the show in real time.

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Unlike in years past, viewers felt more like insiders than ever, thanks to Franco, who many postulated on Twitter and elsewhere that the actor may have been high, judging from the frequency and subject matter of his tweets.

Regardless of his state of mind, Franco’s sudden uptick in tweets (the actor did not tweet as much on his new account prior to Sunday’s show), added an extra layer of insider intrigue for those fond of wry 140-character-or-less observations (or in Franco’s case, multiple mini-videos).

“You did it tonight,” Hathaway noted tonight in a Franco video tweet, seemingly trying to good naturedly distance herself from Franco’s sudden need to document and then tweet the goings on backstage. “That’s right,” he deadpanned, seemingly proud of his “historic” live tweeting of the Oscars as a co-host.