James Franco: actor, philanthropist, Cougar?

In the fall of 2012 actor James Franco will take a break from the red carpets of Hollywood to earn his doctorate in creative writing. | Wikimedia Commons

Rice has rapper Bun B as a professor, the University of Southern Carolina has a class all about Lady Gaga — and now UH has a celebrity to claim as well. Academy Award-nominated actor James Franco will be attending UH starting in Fall 2012. Franco, who celebrated his 33rd birthday Monday, was accepted into the literature and creative writing doctoral program for Fall 2011, but has chosen to defer enrollment for a year.

There have been rumors circulating about Franco coming to the University for a while now, but until Thursday there was no official statement given. The website Burn Down Blog posted a newsletter from the UH creative writing program stating Franco as an accepted student on Wednesday.

On Thursday, UH Executive Director of Media Relations Richard Bonnin tweeted, “The rumors are true. James Franco is scheduled to enter the Ph.D. program in UH’s literature and creative writing program in fall 2012.”

Bonnin also tweeted that while there is no guarantee Franco will attend UH, his interest in the program is promising.

This is no joke, either — Franco takes his education seriously. He went to the University of California Los Angeles for his undergraduate degree, and holds a master’s in fine arts from Columbia University, New York University and Warren Wilson College. The UH creative writing program only accepts 20 students out of about 400 applicants yearly, and only half of those are for the doctoral program.

So what does this mean for the non-celebrity students on campus? For the guys, it means in the next few months the girl in your life will compare you to Franco — at least one time, if not more. For the girls, it means you could have that one-in-a-million chance for a celebrity to fall deeply in love with you (but it in all likelihood, it doesn’t.) It also means that UHPD is probably going to have to keep more police on campus at all times to make sure the mob of fawning girls don’t rip Franco apart.

Let the year of waiting for James Franco commence.