CollegeCandy » James Franco

News broke earlier this week that James Franco’s “Directing The Actor II” professor, Dr. Jose Angel Santana, is suing NYU after allegedly being fired for giving him a D. Santana claims the bad grade was given because James missed 12 out of 14 classes during the semester and that Franco was given special treatment because of his celebrity status. Santana was fired at the end of the semester, and NYU actually hired James “as a lecturer on how to adapt poetry into short films.” That little tidbit probably didn’t make Santana too happy.

I have a hard time believing that Santana was fired for giving James Franco a bad grade, especially knowing how much schools take into consideration student evaluations and other factors. It seems silly for a school to fire a professor based on a celebrity, especially given accounts from his other professors like R. John Williams, his English professor and advisor at Yale.

Williams says that he was not only shocked that a university would fire a professor because of a grade he gave a student, but also that James received a D for missing class. He conducted a directed reading discussion with James and another student with a pretty extensive reading list. But during this semester, James was filming Oz, the Great and Powerful. Williams wasn’t comfortable just having the discussions over the phone, so they agreed to video conference calls. James only missed one and offered to make it up, but Williams told him no. Then during the week his father died, James still attended the meeting.

Williams recounts a trip that he took with the other student to the Oz film set to find that James was always reading. He says, “So when you see James’s character with his arm trapped under a rock in 127 Hours, what you don’t see is that there was an assigned reading under the rock with it. When he’s playfully wrestling with a genetically-enhanced chimpanzee in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, just off to the right of the shot was a stack of books.” This doesn’t surprise me as James is one of the few celebrities to actually take education seriously.

He has an MFA from Columbia University, which he attended at the same time he was studying filmmaking at NYU and fiction writing at Brooklyn College. He’s also a PhD student at Yale, where he attended class instead of watching the 2011 Academy Awards announcement. James will be attending the University of Houston doctoral program for creative writing and literature. There’s no question that James is serious about learning, even producer Judd Apatow said on the set of Pineapple Express, ”He’s a very education-minded person. We used to laugh because in between takes he’d be reading The Iliad on set. We still haven’t read The Iliad. It was a very difficult book.”

Yeah, most people wouldn’t be able to enroll in three schools at once, so that’s probably some special treatment. But why shouldn’t a celebrity be able to get an education? I just don’t see a legitimate claim behind Santana’s lawsuit. It seems more like he got fired for something else and was pissed so he wants his 15-minutes.

Candy Dish: That’s Not Her Name

Amanda - Wisconsin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:00:40 +0000

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Turtleneck or Crew Neck: The Celebrity Circumcision Game

Noa - CU Boulder — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:30:27 +0000

There has been a bit of discussion recently among our writers over whether or not our favorite celebrity dudes are circumcised or uncircumcised. Now, before you ignore the larger issue here and ask why the hell they’d talk about such a bizarre thing — just accept that they tend to let our minds wander and conversations drift from time to time.

Now, back to it. There are strong opinions when it comes to penis…uh…styles (can I say that? does it sound weird?). Imagine if you were one of those girls who was all like, “Gah! What is that? Pause while I WebMD this sitch” every time she came across an uncut dude. What would you do if your ultimate celeb crush came along, totally DTF, and he was sporting more than you bargained for? Would you tell him to move along? Or would you gamely explore foreign territory?

While we can’t coach you through the make-it or break-it moment, we can give you the dirt on who has an elephant trunk in their pants…and who doesn’t. Before we reveal the answers, though, see if you can guess what each of these men are working with…

Will Smith

Ryan Gosling

James Franco

John Mayer

Jon Hamm

Mark-Paul Gosselaar

Macauley Culkin

Keanu Reeves

Anthony Weiner

Rob Lowe

Jonah Hill

Paul Walker

Zac Efron

Mario Lopez

Heath Ledger

Will Arnet

Ewan McGregor

Leonardo DiCaprio

Colin Farrell

Jason Segal

Charlie Sheen

Hey Perez! Stop Stealing Our Content!

Caitlin-University of Alabama — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:30:45 +0000

[Editor note: Our wonderful writer Caitlin spotted this horrible crime this morning and was so upset she just had to post about it. Emails to Perez asking for proper credit have gone unanswered.]

On Monday, I posted this article about James Franco’s Facebook pictures. We were under the assumption that Mr. Franco updated the Facebook page, although someone pointed out that he doesn’t do social media anymore. Regardless of if that’s true or not, Perez Hilton took it upon himself to publish the same article with the same pictures from my gallery under the extremely similar title “James Franco’s Facebook Photos Released” at 8:15 this morning. He basically stated that this is some rare event and that it took an act of Congress to get said photos. Oh and there was no link to CollegeCandy or our article.

I’m calling you out Perez. I don’t know whether to be mad or flattered because I guess I’ve made it if you’re ripping me off. And this isn’t even about me, it’s about CollegeCandy. Don’t steal our shiz. I wonder what else you’ve blatantly taken from our site that we didn’t catch. Or what you’re stealing from other sites. From now on, I highly suggest you start linking and stop taking credit for what everyone else is doing.

James Franco Facebook Photos REVEALED! [Photos]

Caitlin-University of Alabama — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:00:26 +0000

It’s no secret that James Franco is Hollywood’s modern day Renaissance man. Aside from being incredibly sexy, he’s an actor, screenwriter, producer, director, artist, author, PhD student, and professor. Homeboy does everything. Is he neurotic? Yes. Does that make him any less awesome? No way. I firmly believe that with all of the activities James is doing, he is in need of a personal assistant. James, if you’re reading, I will take on that burden for you. Seriously.

Most celebrities have “people” to update their Twitter and Facebook accounts, but not James Franco. He updates his own stuff. Man likes to be in control, hence why he decided to go on General Hospital and get a million different degrees at various schools. He just can. So please enjoy the pictures that Mr. Franco has uploaded himself on Facebook.