James Franco: UCLA students protest their graduation speaker

What’s hilarious is that we are supposed to listen to a nobody who devoted more time twittering and tearing down one of the few truly diverse and talented young actors in Hollywood, than trying to live up to the standards she uses to invalidate the choice of James Franco. She has done nothing to “change the structure of society” herself, or even work on an interesting thesis. Her twitter says its on something about food and sexuality in the Bible- so fresh and innovative, I wonder why no one has thought of it before?!) Who is she to decide what constitutes a respectable choice for a speaker? She’s a jealous actress who can’t book any jobs and thinks she can do it with a Juliet monologue. LOSER!!! This is a case of jealousy plain and simple. She did this for publicity and nothing more because her “talent” can’t get her any jobs.

re: Allison O
How exactly do you know that James Franco hasn’t used his clout to support worthwhile causes? How do you know anything about what he has and hasn’t done with his money and his fame? You don’t work for the IRS or his management, so to make such claims, you engage logical fallacy, not worthwhile criticism. Plus, an actor’s choices and roles do a heck of a lot more than you realize to effect change in the world. You underestimate the power of media, and I think James Franco has worked hard to achieve a balance in his career to entertain AND address many different facets of the human condition.
And to “Veronica”,
nice to see that your expensive education hasn’t really taught you anything, like what you should spend your time protesting against. This is a waste of your time and makes UCLA students look like pretentious spoiled brats with nothing better to do. Get a grip already. You have just helped eliminate UCLA as a school where I will be spending my scholarship.

I don’t understand what is so wrong with Franco for the commencement speaker. Several of the comments so far say that they can’t even remember who their speaker was…I bet UCLA would have remembered HIM! It IS inspirational, not to mention unusual, for someone who is successful to continue to improve himself. And as their “peer” (even though I think it’s pretentious for Erin Moore to consider herself his peer–what has SHE accomplished?), he is relatable. Who better for a commencement speaker than someone who has the ability to truly identify with the graduating students? That’s what will make him memorable. If Erin is so dead set against Franco, and has such specific ideas about the credentials a speaker should have, she needs to provide a suggestion for another, better candidate. Otherwise, she appears silly, immature, and petty.

Can I respond to ‘UCLA Student’:
I’m in college right now and I can tell you showing up to class is not the most important thing a person can do to learn, it’s not even something most students do. In all the years I’ve been in school, in the many classes I’ve taken, I can tell you that about 80% of my classes don’t require attendance to pass (and I don’t mean the teacher’s requirement, I mean what you actually get from sitting in lecture). And maybe 50% of students actually come to the majority of classes. The guy has a successful acting career going alongside going to school. But I bet if he was just some random dude, working at say a bank (or some other random place) and he missed just as many classes because of work, you probably wouldn’t give a crap (and it happens). Though from your comments it seems like you were hoping he’d be a in class every day so you could what, stare at him, hope you might get his number? And now your feeling a bit bitter because you lost your chance.