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Meet James Flacco, Obama’s version of James Franco

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That James Flacco, though ...

President Obama seriously bungled James Franco’s name on Friday when he addressed the North Korea-orchestrated cyberattack on Sony Pictures during his year-end news conference.

“Adele Dazeem” isn’t sounding so flubbed right about now.

Franco, of course, is one of the stars of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s “The Interview,” the comedy believed to have triggered the November attack on Sony that ultimately led to the studio pulling the film from release earlier this week.

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Obama characterized the studio’s move to scrap the comedy -- whose plot line revolves around a fictional attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- as a “mistake.” He said Sony’s decision amounted to allowing the regime to censor American media following the FBI’s Friday announcement that North Korea backed the hacking. (Sony has since said it “had no choice” but is now considering releasing it on a different platform.)

“It says something interesting about North Korea that they decided to have the state mount an all-out assault on a movie studio because of a satirical movie starring Seth Rogen and James Flacco,” Obama said. “I love Seth, and I love James, but the notion that that was a threat to them I think gives you some sense of the kind of regime we’re talking about here.”

Perhaps the prez had football on the brain and was thinking of Joe Flacco, the Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback, or other leader of the free world-type issues issues?

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At any rate, the football player’s official Twitter account jumped on the slip of the tongue and reached out to “The Interview” star via social media, which erupted with corrections to and quips about POTUS’ error.

”.@barackobama It’s James Franco, not James Flacco ;)” said one tweet, with another one embracing the actor. “Welcome to the family, brother. @JamesFrancoTV.”

As is par for the course, a Twitter account for the fictional James Flacco has also surfaced. It boasts an avatar mashing up pictures of the actor and NFL star.

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“Thanks for the name drop, Mr. President. It’s an honor,” read the inaugural tweet, “I’d be more bummed about Sony yanking my movie, but I’m having the best season of my career.”

Actually, Adele Dazeem was worse. Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.

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