UCLA students not wild about James Franco

Watch out, James Franco — not only do some UCLA students not want you to come back, they appear to prefer former supermodels and conservative shock jocks over Golden Globe-nominated actors.

The “Milk” star has been chosen as UCLA’s commencement speaker at this spring’s graduation ceremonies, a year after graduating from the university himself, and some UCLA students have turned to Facebook to protest. Around 240 people had joined the “UCLA Students Against James Franco as Commencement Speaker” group as of Thursday afternoon, with a message stating, “We deserve better: There are so many better students than he, and yet they aren’t candidates to be our keynote speaker.”

Erin Moore, the UCLA senior who founded the group, told Access Hollywood on Thursday that she had nothing against Franco, her former classmate, but didn’t think he had accomplished enough to be the speaker, despite a resume that includes the box office-topping “Spider-Man” franchise, a Golden Globe nomination, a recently announced book deal and his current graduate work at Columbia.

“I have nothing against him, but no one has read his book yet,” she said of Franco, who also won several creative writing awards from the UCLA English department during his undergraduate career. “His success is just one book deal that hasn’t even been written yet. He went to grad school but a lot of students go to grad school.”

Asked who might be a better candidate, she noted that members of the Facebook group had made a number of suggestions, including Ray Bradbury, self-help guru Deepak Chopra, Ron Paul and Rush Limbaugh.

“They’ve done something to change the world,” she said.

Sana Soni, another UCLA senior and group member, also was hoping for a “more qualified” candidate, though she’s not against having it being a celebrity.

“I would love to have an actor if he was someone who had an Academy Award or was more critically acclaimed,” she told Access. “Even Tyra Banks, she would be more appropriate because she has conquered so many different sides of the industry. Or Oprah. Someone who has something important to say to students.”

But while the protesting students are looking elsewhere, according to a UCLA rep, other students did a have a say in Franco’s choice, noting that a number of students are involved in the committee that chooses commencement speakers and that the actor had been their top pick.

“We’re very happy he’s coming,” the rep told Access.

Last year’s slated speaker, former President Bill Clinton, canceled at the last minute after concerns over crossing the picket lines of protesting UCLA workers emerged. In 2007, the commencement speaker was UCLA basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Still, at least there’s one university that Franco doesn’t have to worry about impressing — Harvard, whose Theatricals organization named him its Hasty Pudding Man of the Year in February.

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