LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/AP) — A street artist overnight Wednesday altered a West Los Angeles billboard for the upcoming film “The Greatest Showman” to include a giant image of embattled Sen. Al Franken.
Plastered onto the billboard at National Boulevard and the 405 Freeway was a portion of the now infamous 2006 photo of Franken groping Los Angeles radio host Leann Tweeden. The altered billboard showed Franken appearing to reach towards a female trapeze artist. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the alteration was the work of Sabo, a conservative street artist.
“(Zac) Efron wanted to catch her, but Franken got there first, I guess,” Sabo told THR.
By early Thursday afternoon, the image had been removed and the billboard was back to normal.
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Earlier this month, Tweeden released a photo showing the comedian-turned-senator posing in a joking manner with his hands on her chest as she naps wearing a flak vest aboard a military plane.
Franken personally apologized earlier this month to Tweeden, who said he forcibly kissed and groped her during a 2006 USO tour.
The billboard fiasco comes at the same time that a second woman accused Franken of inappropriately touching her during a USO tour. An Army veteran accused him of groping her during a USO Christmas tour in the Middle East more than a decade ago.
Stephanie Kemplin, 41, of Maineville, Ohio, told CNN in report Thursday that Franken had cupped her right breast when she stood next to him for a photo in December 2003. Kemplin, who was deployed to Kuwait at the time, is the fifth women in two weeks to accuse Franken of sexual misconduct.
Franken’s office released the same statement it provided CNN late Wednesday.
“As Sen. Franken made clear this week, he takes thousands of photos and has met tens of thousands of people and he has never intentionally engaged in this kind of conduct. He remains fully committed to cooperating with the ethics investigation,” the statement said.
Three other women allege Franken grabbed their buttocks while posing with them for photos during separate campaign events in 2007, 2008 and 2010.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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