Emma Roberts and co-star James Franco's tandem in the recent "Palo Alto" movie made headlines after the two went cosy in the Tribeca Film Festival premiere held in New York City. Franco and Robert's characters in the film share a May-December "flirtatious" affair, thus rising speculations whether there is something brewing between the two.

James Franco is reported to have a penchant for younger girls following his April 3 Instagram post that stormed the social networking sites and entertainment media outlets trying to confirm whether the actor is truly seducing a 17-year old girl. While the news tainted Franco's celebrity image, various interpretations emerge that it was a promotional stint to promote "Palo Alto" wherein he plays the role of a soccer coach who is taking advantage of a "virginal" teen played by Emma Roberts.

In a different light, James Franco receives the respect of his "Palo Alto" team. When asked in the HuffPost Live interview, Gia Coppola and Emma Roberts were quite not interested to talk about the Instagram post.

"I honestly didn't read any of it. When people sent it to me, I was like, 'I don't want to read about this.' It's irrelevant," Roberts said while Coppola pointed out that she did not confront Franco about the matter and all she knows that she is a great guy.

Emma Roberts, 21, also shared that she had fun with the flirting scene with Franco, 36, and it was not awkward at all.

"Palo Alto" is drama written and directed by Gia Coppola based on James Franco's collection of short story of the same title. The story itself has a painful weight for the viewers as it shows how the lack of parental guidance encouraged teen in a California town engage in casual sex and substance abuse.

While the movie has debuted in 2013 in two film festivals (Telluride Film Festival, August 2013 and the Venice Film Festival, September 2013), "Palo Alto" is starting to gain recognition this year as it awaits release in May 9, 2014 in the US.

"Palo Alto" is also given a good 82% rating by movie review database Rotten Tomatoes, with 93% of viewers interested to watch the film. Reviews from critics sound positive as well.

"Gia Coppola proves to have quite the eye, if not quite the natural storytelling instinct of her cinematic kin, serving up a remarkably assured feature debut with "Palo Alto," a top critic from Variety shares.

Emma Roberts acting received positive remarks from viewers as well, with magazine The Atlantic commending her performance as "star-making."

.@TheAtlantic calls @RobertsEmma's performance in #PaloAlto "star-making." pic.twitter.com/11K5AO1LX1

— Palo Alto (@PaloAltoMovie) April 28, 2014