Home : Wacky & Weird : James Franco -- College Drop Out

James Franco -- College Drop Out

Posted Jun 4th 2009 11:15AM by TMZ Staff

James FrancoThere's going to be quite a few happy students at UCLA today -- because James Franco has dropped out of giving the keynote speech at this year's graduation.

You'll remember back in March, a group of 200-something students launched a Facebook protest against Franco -- who graduated only a year earlier, was only an "average student," and fell asleep in class -- giving the big speech.

Franco said in a statement: "I deeply regret not being able to keep my commitment to giving the commencement speech at UCLA's graduation this year.

Unfortunately the date conflicts with me needing to be on location to begin pre-production on my next film. I wish everyone in the 2009 class the best of luck in all of their future endeavors."

He probably would have overslept and missed it anyway.

See Also



Tags: college, graduation speech, GraduationSpeech, James Franco, JamesFranco, UCLA

Comments [21]
SHARE |
4ie6

Relevant Posts

Reader Comments

(Page 1 of 2) | 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

1. this is him listeneing to our commander in chief ,kissing extremists islamists,asses.

Posted at 11:26AM on Jun 4th 2009 by tim geithner

2. so who will be speaking at my graduation? he gives notice about a week in advance that he can't make it? what is wrong with him? graduation is on the 12th and today is the 4th. now who will be the speaker on such late notice?

Posted at 11:28AM on Jun 4th 2009 by kt

3. Who?

Posted at 11:30AM on Jun 4th 2009 by J-dawg

4. What a loser.

Posted at 11:33AM on Jun 4th 2009 by Sarafina

5. Reminds me of myself sleeping through my marine biology class in college.

Posted at 11:41AM on Jun 4th 2009 by spikewebbe

6. OMG! HE LOOKS SOOO CUTE IN THAT PIC! LOL!

Posted at 12:00PM on Jun 4th 2009 by josi

7. haha, well, at least he dropped out. Love James, but I don't think he's an intellectual giant. =)

Posted at 12:01PM on Jun 4th 2009 by lol

8. Give him a break... if you were pursuing 2 Master's degrees at 2 different locations, while working on films, etc., you'd be really really tired too!

Posted at 12:12PM on Jun 4th 2009 by oddball

9. I gotta a little something for that open mouth of his . . . .

Posted at 12:47PM on Jun 4th 2009 by The REAL DEAL

10. I don't know James. But I would generally tend to give people the benefit of doubt and to assume naturally that they are relatively decent people given the chance - therefore I find it difficult to comprehend the snide comments about him - the notion that he must somehow be "lazy" or a poor student are ill founded,. I've fallen asleep in class, and I don't regard myself as either stupid or a bad student... how ridiculous! It seems like disingenuous nitpicking and if not rather mean spirited, then at least naive and foolish to make condescending remarks about someone you don't know at all and It saddens me that people have become so hasty to leap to judgment and condemn one another.

Posted at 1:16PM on Jun 4th 2009 by hans

11. Nothing like a good Facebook revolution to change the world!

Posted at 3:50PM on Jun 4th 2009 by Andrea

12. He will most likely make more $ in his acting career than most of us in our careers. I'm sure he's laughing at these negative comments about him..haha

Posted at 3:53PM on Jun 4th 2009 by THaus

13. That's ABSOLUTELY right, hans!!!!

Posted at 3:55PM on Jun 4th 2009 by Joseph

14. old picture.
furthermore, this guy is a class act, doesn't get into or seek out trouble, media shy.....................oh, now i get it.
he's a good guy which translates to no media hype.
wow.........trash does sell, i guess. or, he did not accept the sexual advances from one mr harvey, in-the-closet-for-not-much-longer levin.

Posted at 4:23PM on Jun 4th 2009 by NYC123

15. Sleeping in class...big deal. I slept in lectures all the time and still managed mostly As in college. The students were complaining about him being the speaker, so he probably backed out because of that. It's funny...Seth MacFarlane gave a hilarious commencement address to the HARVARD grads a few years ago, and you didn't hear them bitching and moaning.

Posted at 4:53PM on Jun 4th 2009 by A

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments