Star-studded Princeton
We all know the feeling. That giddy little spark of recognition when watching House ("That's Frist!") or A Beautiful Mind ("That's in front of Nassau Hall!"), and pretty soon, Transformers 2 ("That's... not Penn.")With Princeton making it to the silver screen so often, it's no surprise that a recent story on the AP newswire reported
Such tie-ins allow TV and film productions to be more authentic while at the same time providing universities with free advertising and the chance to up their coolness quotient.
Yeah, Princeton really checked its hipness by having Hillary Duff apply here in A Cinderella Story. But Tilghman can't let producers throw around the Princeton name willy-nilly. There has to be some incentive...
Princeton University also weighs filmed entertainment pitches on a case-by-case basis. One of the considerations sometimes is whether the production supports a university effort or initiative."We try to look for synergies with the project," said university spokeswoman Emily Aronson. "For instance, our interest in having more young women apply to the university and movies such as 'A Cinderella Story,' and 'Spanglish,' which featured female characters who apply to Princeton."
How that applies to Transformers 2 escapes me (perhaps Rapelye is going after the "more than meets the eye" crowd?). But if what Aronson says is true, expect Princeton to follow up on some university "efforts or initiatives" on the silver screen in these coming attractions:Slumdog Billionaire: The epic tale of how a humble university struggled in the midst of a crippling economic crisis with a meager $12 billion in its endowment. Spoiler!: It comes out just fine, wouldn't you know.Fratman: The Dark Night: A crafty student vigilante tracks down two roving public masturbators on a frightened school campus.The Curious Case of Lewis Library: In this strange fantasy, a supposedly fiscally responsible institution of higher learning spends an inordinate amount of money on chairs. Shirley Tilghman plays herself; she ages backwards, for no particular reason.All the USG's Men: Two journalists uncover scandal, deceit, and incompetence in a student government administration, only to realize... it's all in a day's work.