Steve Carell to speak at Class Day

Actor and comedian Steve Carell will be the Class Day Speaker for the Class of 2012, according to an e-mail announcement from the 2012 Class Day team, which includes Gabriel Debenedetti '12, Chris Green '12, Erin Kiernan '12, and Lindy Li '12."We are thrilled that Mr. Carell will be joining us as we bring our Princeton journey to a close," the team said in the e-mail. "National media have crowned him as the funniest man in America — we could not agree more."Carell is perhaps best known for his role as the inept office manager Michael Scott on NBC's The Office, which the actor left last spring. He has also starred in films including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Date Night, and most recently, Crazy, Stupid Love.In the recent past, Class Day speakers have not been announced until late spring. In fact, in 2010, Charlie Gibson '65 joked about his last-minute selection, claiming that celebrities from Lindsay Lohan to Sarah Palin had turned down offers to speak at Princeton.But this year's Class Day chairs began to work on bringing Carell to campus over the summer, Debenedetti said. Debenedetti, Green, and Kiernan served as the Class of 2012's Class Day chairs."We've been pushing for him for a long time," he said. "We felt like he was one of the more iconic comedians of our generation, and a lot of people in our class have grown up with his comedy."Can't wait till June 4? Here's a preview: