The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism reached its fundraising goal of $100 million three years ahead of schedule, thanks to a generous donation by former student and 32nd richest man in the world, John Kluge.
Kluge donated $20 million to his alma mater, which probably means he just got sick and tired of all those Alumni Association bulletins he was getting in the mail every month Sorry John: don't you know that the more money you give, the more they are going to bug you?
In separate news: most New York public schools still going to shit. Go figure.
Robert A. Williams was handed a 422 year prison sentence yesterday for crimes related to the rape and torture (there was bleach, glue, and knives involved) of a 19-year-old Columbia journalism student last April. The "childhood of neglect" defense did not work. [NYT]
Recall Madonna Constantine, the Columbia University professor who made headlines last October after claiming to be a victim of a hate crime when she found a noose hanging from her door. At the time, it wasn't public that Constantine was also under investigation for widespread plagiarism, charged with lifting others' work without credit in numerous academic journal articles she bylined. So then it was thought that perhaps somebody sympathetic to Constantine, or Constantine herself, had placed the noose on her door to drum up sympathy for her, boning up her defense that she was the victim — of "structural racism that pervades this institution," according to her own words.
An investigation was launched to encompass both matters and now, it seems, a conclusion: CONTINUED »
• A security supervisor at Catfish Bend Casinos in Iowa was fired for putting up the Dilbert cartoon above. He wasn't a "team player." Apparently at Catfish Ben Casinos, watching security footage to see who put up an innocuous cartoon is a team player move.
• Being a role model is great and all, but Jack Mackenroth would rather not have HIV. CONTINUED »
• CBS's new comedy Fugly is part The Swan rip-off, part Ugly Betty rip-off.
• Jon Friedman names NYT columnist Nick Kristof his Print Journalist of the Year. Must've been that LX.tv interview.
• Rod Stewart and Rachel Hunter finalize their divorce. It only took seven years.
• Ethics class cheats on test. Obvious irony — plus, it was a pass-fail course.
• Disgraced and deceased former NYT managing editor Gerald Boyd gets 11 paragraphs of niceties before a mention of that Jayson Blair incident.
• The paparazzi agencies suiing Perez Hilton are now facing the backlash from, you guessed it blogs. Except Culture Kitchen's rationale makes quite a bit of sense.
• It's fun laughing off Danny DeVito's drunken View appearance as just a guy who "had one too many."
• Debra Schoeneman is the latest Portfolio hire. Well, contributing editor, at least.
• HX puts on its latex glove, grabs the Crisco, and snaps up what's left of independent gay media.
• David Zinczenko launches Men's Health Kazakhstan – the Rodale title's 36th international edition – by takin the new editor to see Borat.
• Joining fellow NYT scribe David Carr in the "this just in — from weeks ago" arena, Kit Seelye scrapes the mud off an old WSJ story.
• Outgoing USA Today reporters gets in a parting snub.
• The guide to being an insta-YouTube cewebrity newsman.
• Columbia: Decent j-school, bad neighbors.
• Did you wait in the rain for your Borat tix? Here's who to blame.
We didn't realize Hunter S. Thompson left a grieving widow behind at the time of his tragic suicide in 2005. We also didn't know she was 33 with intentions of returning to college to pursue a degree in English. But he did, and she is, and we couldn't be happier for her.
Anita Thompson was accepted to her husbands' former studying grounds, Columbia University. And, boy, does she deserve it.
"I'm thrilled. I have Hunter to thank for getting me accepted and hooking me up with the kinds of people who wrote me letters of recommendation," she told the Aspen Daily News.
She will fit in just perfect over at Columbia, where most students have someone else to credit for their college acceptance letter.
Remember yesterday's report about Natalie Portman dropping in on a Columbia University class to guest teach? Turns out professor Stuart Gottlieb and his Terrorism and Counterterrorism class was merely part of an "underground" publicty tour for her upcoming V For Vendetta orchestrated by MTU-U, MTV's campus network.
Thankfully, there's a student in attendance with a blog.
It turns out that Ms. Portman's cameo in Professor Stuart Gottlieb's Terrorism and Counterterrorism class was part of a MTV-U promotion for her latest flick, V for Vendetta, in which her character mounts a revolutionary campaign against a totalitarian government and generally blows shit up.
A sampling of the truths Ms. Portman imparted in the 20-minute Q&A session following a somber Frontline documentary on Al Qaeda, Guantanamo and the CIA's counterterrorism tactics:
- "My immediate reaction is that torture is wrong."
- "I don't think it's right to take down the Twin Towers."
- "Censorship is bad."
In other news, the Bwog suspects Ms. Portman and Prezbo share the same hair stylist. Her hair. never. moved.
Glad we're reinforcing such commercial marketing values among our undergrad population. We hope Jonathan Antin has time in his schedule to lecture a Art History class on the importance of bangs in the 17th century Baroque era.
Breaking News: Natalie Portman at Columbia [The Bwog]
Earlier: Natalie Portman hands out gold stars at Columbia University
Straight off the success of her Saturday Night Live digital short (and straight off the success of NBC's ability to pull it from YouTube), Natalie Portman's continued her New York press tour with at stopover at – of all places – Columbia University. The V For Vendetta star's classroom appearance on Monday is being labeled as a "stand-in professor" gig, where we imagine topics ranged from "How to shave your head without looking like a bull dyke" to "It doesn't matter if your big budget movie performance was shitty; It's all about the paycheck."
The Cold Mountain star made quite an impression on students at Columbia University in New York when she went along to work as a stand-in professor on Monday. The pretty performer is no stranger to the goings-on of a college campus, however, as she studied for her own qualification at Harvard between 1999 and 2003.
Casually dressed in blue jeans and a loose-fitting top, Natalie looked rather less intimidating than her shaven-headed character in latest movie offering V For Vendetta. The actress, who says people took her for a troublemaker while she was sporting the skinhead look, has since grown her brunette locks back.
With Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen effectively abandoning New York University's campus, it's the least Hollywood can do for academia in lil' ole New York. Now, with midterms coming up, expect Kiera Knightley to stop by CUNY to discuss Scarlett Johansson's pasty ass and Emma Watson to drop in on Marymount for a lecture on binge drinking.
On Tuesday night, Columbia journalism students will get a real treat. Bonnie Fuller herself is going to speak to a select group of 50 aspiring reporters.
Topics will include writing cover lines, advice on succeeding in the industry, and the importance of carrying a Prada bag.
But, really what can she say to these poor kids, who, come May, will be desperately scouring the job market? Quit now, and stop wasting your money on a journalism degree, which will get you nowhere in life. Oh, wait, she sort of already said that.
"I've hired excellent people who've gone to journalism school and excellent people who haven't. When I look at résumés, I don't really pay attention to that.
Of course Bonnie doesn't care if you went to journalism school. Are you willing to sleep under your desk? Can you find pictures of Britney Spears looking like a fat-ass? Do you have what it takes to hang around celebrities and find out what they were drinking and who they were making out with in the corner of Bungalow?
We're sure that Ms. Fuller will bring her industry wisdom to these young, impressionable minds. At least she's guarenteed to make a bigger impression than Lowdown's "I think his name is Lloyd Grove."
Star Pupils [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
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