James Franco laughs off Instagram controversy in Saturday Night Live skit

Actor James Franco laughed off his recent Instagram.com dating scandal this weekend (12-13Apr14) by joining his pal Seth Rogen on comedy show Saturday Night Live to poke fun at the controversy.

The 127 Hours star hit headlines earlier this month (Apr14) for attempting to court Scottish teenager Lucy Clode on the social networking site after meeting her following a performance of his Broadway play.

Screenshots of their online conversation, in which Franco asked for the 17 year old's phone number, quizzed her on whether she had a boyfriend and offered to book a hotel room, was posted on Instagram, forcing the actor to later admit he was "embarrassed" for his "bad judgment".

Rogen turned the incident into material for his guest hosting stint on Saturday's (12Apr14) sketch show by referring to the scandal in his opening monologue.

Pretending to read excerpts from his week's diary entries ahead of his SNL gig, he said, "Wednesday, 3pm: they (show writers) read all the sketches out loud; I didn't feel like I did great, so to make myself feel better, I decided to prank James Franco. I posed as a girl on Instagram, told him I was way young. He seemed unfazed; I have a date to meet him at the Ace Hotel."

Franco subsequently appeared onstage and quipped, "I just wanted to say great prank buddy. I've been waiting at the Ace Hotel for three days!"

The Oscar nominee wasn't the only surprise guest on Saturday Night Live - Zooey Deschanel also stopped by to offer Rogen her comedy help, while Taylor Swift joked about her songwriting inspirations by joining an exasperated Rogen onstage at the start of the show, saying, "You were getting really upset and whenever a man shows emotion, I appear."

Swift was actually on the set of the New York-based show to support her singer/songwriter pal, Ed Sheeran, who served as the night's musical guest.