Dave_Berry

"James Franco’s tired James Dean act got an NYU professor booted from the school last year — after the teacher dared to give the overhyped Hollywood hunk a 'D' for blowing off class, a lawsuit charges.

José Angel Santana said he slapped the '127 Hours’' star with the bad grade because he missed 12 of his 14 'Directing the Actor II' classes while pursuing a master’s in fine arts.

Santana said he then suffered all kinds of drama — first from Franco, who publicly ridiculed him, then from his department, which axed him over the 'D.'

'The school has bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment, that’s for sure,' Santana, 58, told The Post. 'The university has done everything in its power to curry favor with James Franco.' ..."

Moral: Don't cut class or you may get your prof fired.

NYU professor claims school fired him for giving James Franco a “D” - NYPOST.com

Joehascol

Disgusting.

alwaysamom

It will be interesting to see what happens with this, if it's ever made public. I don't understand the comments I've read on a few sites in response to this story about NYU craving famous students because it means big money to them. How does that work exactly? Where does this supposed big money come from as a result of famous students?

By the way, Franco was in the Graduate Film program, not the Drama dept.

ActingDad

Higher profile students equals more donations and higher tuition as people want to attend programs where the stars are at. This is similar to the high profile athlete in college. Keep him in school and the school gets more money via donations and ticket sales.

Not saying I support NYU's decision to fire the teacher. But the financial pressure to play "nice" was definitely there.

alwaysamom

ActingDad, NYU is consistently at or near the top in the application numbers game every year, both generally, and for Tisch. The school doesn't need famous students to attract high numbers of applicants. The tuition is already among the highest in the country. Alumni donations to Tisch, by famous alumni or not so famous, are notoriously low. If by ticket sales, you're talking about tickets for productions, they're always sold out anyway and James Franco being in the Graduate Film Dept. would have no effect on Drama productions.

I'm not saying that these issues may be factors at some other colleges, but at NYU? Doubtful.

NJTheatreMOM

The article made it sound like certain NYU faculty members had been hired onto Franco's projects. That would be of value to the individuals, if nothing else.

fishbowlfreshman

For a real laugher, check out Franco’s Wikipedia bio under “Education.” According to that, he got permission to take 62 course credits per semester at UCLA in “earning” his English degree with a concentration in Creative Writing during which the Tisch professor is apparently alleging that he blew off over 80% of his classes. Then he simultaneously enrolled in the MFA Writing program at Columbia and the Fiction Writing program at Brooklyn College on top of the Tisch Film MFA and is now enrolled as a Ph.D. English candidate at Yale. He also plans to attend the Rhode Island School of Design and has been accepted to the Doctoral program in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston.

This all started in 2006 during which time he also acting in or directed at least 40 films according to imdb give or take a few due to the time lapse between shooting and release. Academic integrity indeed ...

SongSearcher

Regardless of this claim's validity, it does bring up the interesting question of work vs. education. If a student, say that they are in their third year of college, and they get suddenly hired to do a tour, should they do it? Of if there is a good local theatre scene, can they act off campus and study theatre at the same time? Everyone will have their own opinion on this I'm sure!

Me personally, I'd hate to have to leave college for any reason, but a paying job in theatre? It would help me afford college, add legitimate credits to my resume and who knows where else it might lead to? Besides, college isn't high school-you don't have to sit in that desk until you graduate, you can always go back to it.

This just happened to a classmate of mine; she got working on a project and decided to take next semester off to concentrate on it because you never know if it might go big.

Roger_Dooley

There's nothing wrong with taking a semester off to pursue an interesting employment opportunity, in acting or just about any other field. The student will almost always be the better for such experience if he/she then returns to complete the degree. (Or, if the opportunity turns out to be both amazing and long-lasting. E.g., Bill Gates.) Of course, that presumes that the time off is organized properly with the school and that the student doesn't just disappear from classes.

glassharmonica

fishbowlfreshman, that's hilarious and calls to question (as you point out) the integrity of these institutions. I've never heard of anyone, famous or not, being enrolled simultaneously in two grad programs at two different institutions, let alone six (or whatever it is, I got dizzy reading your post and lost count.)

Edit: Oh, rechecked Wikipedia. You forgot to mention his commutes to the low-res program at Warren Wilson. At least the guy has taste in picking all the good programs. I wonder if there is a 12-step program for MFA addiction.

fishbowlfreshman

^ LMAO Yeah … David Mamet must be writing furiously if he's caught wind of this! It’ll make for an interesting play … or at least an episode on one of the lawyer dramadies. Meh … Where I’m from the only excuse for missing class was being dead and I don’t have any sympathy for it at all being someone with a history of having literally passed out in class with a 104 degree temperature …

As to the other points, some of the decision as to take the gig or not depends on the policies of the school and the department. Some of the top acting schools won’t allow you to return although some of the teachers may or may not encourage you to take the job. Rightfully so, too, since the training at most is ensemble based.

I could have left before final year, myself, since I scored a film role that shot during the summer for a nice chunk of change which led to a referral to a top agent who would have signed me right then and there. Fortunately, he allowed me to “stay in touch” and signed me a few weeks before showcase, but none of that would have happened had the film shot at a time that would have made me miss school. No way was I leaving after all that work towards a degree. I was also looking at it long term since mine actually qualifies me to teach at the conservatory level or as an adjunct at a regular university and there’s no telling what might happen after that first gig. MANY go for years before the next opportunity arises and for some it never does ...

MomOfMouse

"ActingDad, NYU is consistently at or near the top in the application numbers game every year, both generally, and for Tisch. The school doesn't need famous students to attract high numbers of applicants. The tuition is already among the highest in the country. Alumni donations to Tisch, by famous alumni or not so famous, are notoriously low. If by ticket sales, you're talking about tickets for productions, they're always sold out anyway and James Franco being in the Graduate Film Dept. would have no effect on Drama productions.

I'm not saying that these issues may be factors at some other colleges, but at NYU? Doubtful. "

I went to NYU 19 years ago and believe me one of the main reasons that NYU is now such a selective and prestigious schools is the large number of famous actors and celebrities that have attended this university. Not to mention all the free advertising NYU got on the Cosby show for years.

Of course NYU is trying to attract and retain top celebrities.

You may not be old enough to remember it, but NYU's stellar reputation is a fairly new occurance.

For years, NYU was "the other NYC school" ..not anywhere near Columbia's reputation. Now, things are much different and celebrity endorsement and Tisch school of the arts are 2 main reasons.

Celebritiy cache + NYC location = more students apply to NYU = NYU can be more selective in admissions = higher US News and World rankings = more selective students apply = higher rankings = more selective students apply ...repeat

OhioMom3000

I was very disappointed with the book Franco wrote, which I think was a compilation of some of his college (or perhaps high school) English papers. That's the impression I had, anyway. If the claim is true, it's unfortunate on NYU's part.

alwaysamom

MomofMouse, if you were at NYU 19 years ago, you're much younger than I am so I think I'm old enough to remember. I'm very familiar with NYU, have many friends who have been students there or who have taught there. Also have a D who is a Tisch grad. I never said that NYU wouldn't try to attract celebrities. I said that they don't need them. If you think that the few celebrities who attend NYU, most of whom never graduate, are really responsible for the large numbers of applications every year, then I think you underestimate the kids who want to attend, certainly the kids who want to attend Tisch. My response was to the thought by actingdad that the presence of James Franco would result in large donations to Tisch or help ticket sales for drama productions, unlikely on the first count and unnecessary on the second. Someone in the Film MFA is not going to have any connection to ticket sales. Why would they? The 'celebrity' that is likely most responsible for the number of applications is the city itself.

broken_symlink

fishbowlfreshman, i'm surprised you didn't mention this:

"The actor opted against watching the 2011 Academy Award nominees be announced (where he was a top contender) in favor of attending class. "I’m not gonna miss class to go and presume that I’m going to be nominated, but if you want to bring out a camera crew to Yale and wait and see if I get nominated, I’d be happy to step out of class and say I’m very grateful", he commented."

now, how could someone like that possibly miss 12 out of 14 lectures?!?!?! think of the sacrifice he made by not watching the academy awards nominees be announced!