A week before their film's official release date, James Franco and his co-star Ashley Benson reportedly held hands at the South by Southwest premiere of Spring Breakers, circulating rumors that they are dating.

Witnesses told Page Six they were locking arms at the event this week in Austin, Texas, at co-stars Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez and Rachel Korine also attended.

The publication first reported rumors of the stars dating in October of 2012 after they were allegedly seen acting romantic toward one another in New York and at a Halloween party in Los Angeles, according to Entertainmentwise. The news report at the time added that Franco and Benson "have been seeing each other for a little over a month."

Franco responded negatively to the claims, writing on his Huffington Post blog: "The New York Post has also been sniffing around for academic gossip because they can't write about me stumbling out of clubs . . . They can kiss my a**."

"I also hear that I've been dating Selena Gomez, Kristen Stewart and Ashley Benson. Hot damn, am I a lucky guy," he wrote. "I wish I had actually gotten closer than the 13th row of the theater in Toronto where Kristen gave her On the Road Q and A, but I didn't... I didn't even go to the SoHo house where I supposedly asked her out on a date."

"As for Gomez and Benson," Franco added, "those are [Justin's] Bieber's girls and I wouldn't dare tangle with the Biebs."

Spring Breakers is out in theaters March 22.

On March 10, Franco was interviewed by comedian Marc Maron for his live WTF podcast during SXSW and was called out for being too serious. When Maron asked the actor if he watched old episodes of Freaks And Geeks, Franco replied yes and added, "I used to take myself so seriously!"

Maron replied he was glad Franco does not do that anymore, which prompted the actor to turn away from him. The comedian then jokingly said, "don't let it get weird now." Marc later said in his own interview Franco took offense to being called out and that things got really tense between them.

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