The Horrible Truth About Creating A Permissive “Franco-Friendly Environment”

A NYU professor is allegedly fired for deigning to uphold his attendance policy:

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.

[The professor] 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.

[The professor] 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,” [the professor], 58, told The Post. “The university has done everything in its power to curry favor with James Franco.”

Unsavory allegations of quid pro quos among other professors included at link!

Emergency Third Rail Power Trip

Anecdotes from the New York City Transit Learning Center’s Track Safety class, mandatory for anyone working on New York City Transit proerty, including actors:

Kevin Bress, the senior director of Track Infrastructure and Maintenance Support Training for N.Y.C.T., said, the other day, at the agency’s headquarters, at 2 Broadway. The class, he explained, takes eight hours and is mandatory for anyone working on N.Y.C.T. property. Of the curriculum, he said, “The main theme of the class is teaching people how not to get hit by a train.”

René Corcino, a course instructor, added, “We also identify areas that the homeless may tend to get comfortable in before the police chase them out.” Other topics: the third rail, tripping hazards, how to scoot up the platform ladder from the tracks. “You have to kind of put your foot sideways,” another instructor, Joseph Lupo, said.

. . .

Lupo continued, “[Nicolas] Cage was especially interested in the third rail. He had this big thing about the mystical power of electricity.”

Free Sully!

Again America — don’t Wesley Autrey the poor man. He’s done enough:

Sullenberger said that when both engines on the Charlotte, NC-bound jet conked out after takeoff from La Guardia Airport — investigators say a double bird strike caused both engines to shut down — the feeling of total silence was “shocking.”

“It was very quiet as we worked, my co-pilot and I,” he said, slowly relating the heart-pounding moments.

“We were a team. But to have zero thrust coming out of those engines was shocking — the silence.”

Then prodded to relate his feelings as he dealt with zero power and a split-second decision about how and where to land, Sully said simply:

“Calm on the outside, turmoil inside.”

. . .

Of the entire experience, Sully kept telling ESPN it was simply “surreal.”

But his poise under pressure earned him a telephone call from President Obama — who invited him to his Jan. 20 inauguration and offered to fly him aboard Air Force One — a trip to the Super Bowl, and even a job offer from Virgin Air.

And he hasn’t ruled anything out.

“I will be happy to entertain all the things that are coming my way,” he told Britain’s Daily Mail when contacted at his home in Danville, Calif.

The indomitable pilot will give his first full interview about the Miracle on the Hudson to CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday.

Piven, I Watched Interviews With Jeff Kolodjay, I Was Riveted By Jeff Kolodjay’s Harrowing Story, Jeff Kolodjay Bravely Waited For His Death While The Heroic Captain Instructed Him To “Brace For Impact” — Piven, You Are No Jeff Kolodjay

Piven — you Golden Globe-attending, Broadway-ditching, recession-widening slacker — you don’t deserve even a passing thought that the guy rescued from Flight 1549 bears even the slightest resemblance to you. So quit trying hog the limelight, you fraud:

Yes, one of the passengers on US Airways Flight 1549 bore a striking resemblance to Jeremy Piven — at least on some TV shots — but the “Entourage” actor was not on the plane.

Video footage of Piven’s doppelganger surfaced, spurring Internet rumors and calls to all the Golden Globe nominee’s own entourage.

“He’s totally fine,” the star’s rep confirmed. “He’s in New York, and he did ‘Good Morning America’.”

Eight Gold Medals, Seven World Records And You Can’t Ring A Stupid Bell?

Come on, “golden boy”:

The traders at the New York Stock Exchange went berserk on Tuesday over the hottest commodity at the Beijing Olympics, circling Michael Phelps like sharks.

There was barely room to breathe on the floor as people pushed to get close to Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals and set seven world records.

Phelps rang the opening bell, or at least that was the original plan. On the platform alongside his fellow United States Olympic swimming champions Ryan Lochte and Natalie Coughlin, Phelps was so tired that he was tottering, so Coughlin discreetly did the honors.

“Michael was just kind of jet-lagged,” Coughlin said.

On the floor, he was besieged by autograph seekers. One trader held up a magazine with Phelps on the cover for him to sign and said, “My wife wants to marry you.” When told that Phelps, who was in the middle of a television interview, would not be signing anything more, the trader said, indignantly, “Is his hand broken?”

Or was that Las Vegas trip a little draining?