... the attribution of "bad intent" she injects, what she describes strikes me as a situation in which an actor simply failed to pick up "signals" that she was uncomfortable with the script, and had no intention of following it. (She said she intended to turn her head when they did the skit.)
From her perspective, he was asking her to do something she was refusing to do (even though she didn't bother to tell anyone she was refusing). Being asked to do something you have refused to do is uncomfortable. I think her report of discomfort is honest. And she may have objected to rehearsing as clearly as she describes too. Franken would clearly be in the wrong if he "heard" the objection, and pressed on, but I think he failed to "hear" it because it didn't make sense. No one would expect someone who planned to do something on stage to object to rehearsing. My point is, the exact same sequence of events can seem "way out of bounds" to one participant, and well within bounds to another. Sure, she could be lying or exaggerating, but she could be giving an honest account based on memory and perception colored by her state of mind at the time. Memory is far more malleable than most of us think.
The unequivocally "bad act," as I see it, isn't the rehearsal kiss, it's the photo. There is no denying that it is a shameful display of disrespect, and Franken has expressed his disgust with himself. The only reason this story may not fade away as it should is that we are living in a world turned upside-down by reactionary insanity.
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