Academic Actors

There is something extremely sexy about actors with an education or (earned) academic degrees.




James Franco (who, in my eyes, arrived way before 127 hours) completed his undergraduate studies from UCLA and his graduate degrees from NYU (film making) and Columbia (fina arts). Now, he has been accepted as a doctoral student in English Literature at Yale. All this, while continuing to make quality movies, write books and screenplays, paint etc. ( I am quite sure I am missing out some things here)




David Duchovny, on the other hand, has not enjoyed the kind of success and adulation that Franco has which has mostly to do with his disastrous movie choices!!! He studied at Princeton, got a Masters in English Literature at Yale and then, enrolled but did not completed his PhD from the same University on the topic " Magic and Technology in Contemporary Poetry and Prose". Despite his continuing struggle to find his feet as an actor, I find his role as Hank Moody in the otherwise extreme, explicit television series CALIFORNICATION as one of his finest and most 'real' to date. This is not to discount his performance as the wry but lovable Fox Mulder in The X-Files.

Duchovny has expressed his interest in completing his PhD some day.

The fact that Franco and Duchovny look the way they do cannot possibly hurt in the 'charm' department!!

Back home, we have a host of our very own Bollywood celebrities who have been showered with honorary doctoral degrees by 'phoren' Universities. Leading the pack are Preity Zinta, Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Shilpa Shetty for their extraordinary contribution to Indian cinema. I believe Katrina Kaif and Imran Khan are due to receive it anytime soon!! :-)

I, of course, choose not to mention some truly 'eligible' actor/honorary doctorate holders like Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah.

This post is not meant to undermine the host of intellectually leaning actors/creative persons who decided to quit higher education as they deemed it pointless at some stage. But, in a traditional society where merit is still judged by academic achievement, a handful of actors with degrees are refreshingly attractive as compared to a sea of dopey drop outs!!

Law, Like Love: W.H. Auden

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.

Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.

Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.

Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.

Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.

Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,
Law has gone away.

And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.

If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,

No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyway:
Like love I say.

Like love we don't know where or why,
Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.