Fans of actor James Franco who were fast enough probably saw the selfie of the celebrity almost naked, except for a yellow underwear that he was even pulling down in a teasing manner, showing hints of his bush down under (https://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/news/james-franco-posts-deletes-racy-selfie-164051777.html).

Franco actually posted his selfie on photo sharing site Instagram on Thursday night at 11:28 pm ET, but he later deleted it from his account although some quick followers were able to copy the photo and retweeted or reposted it on other social media sites.

Franco has 1.9 million Instagram followers and another 2 million Twitter followers.

The photo seems to be taken inside a bathroom or a hot area based on what looks like sweat on the actor's bare chest. It is not the first time that Franco posted selfies of himself shirtless, accompanied by captions that tease the reader.

He explained in April to the Associated Press that he was playing around using his social media accounts to see how the public would react to his selfies.

In early April, Franco had problems because he hit a 17-year-old girl on Instagram. He met the teener and her mum, who were just visiting New York, outside a production stage door.

Franco, who starred in Of Mice and Men, later admitted in a TV show that hitting the 17-year-old was a bad judgment on his part and he had learned his lesson.

However, his being controversial once again indicates he has forgotten the lesson he learned last month, but was quick enough to put in place damage control by deleting the photo after a few hours.

But it was not fast enough because the few hours that his near-naked selfie was on his Instagram account was an open invitation to fans and admirers to copy, paste and share the sexy bare-chested photo of the actor.

While Franco was wise enough not to show his private parts in last week's selfie, curious fans could easily have a peek at his other nude images on the Internet, although some are merely products of Photoshop. Or they could instead have a good laugh and see Franco's nude sketch made by his friend Seth Rogen who made it obviously to poke fun at Franco's selfie and showed it at Jimmy Fallon's show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYM3pFsP1wI).