Had actress Amanda Peet's character, Cynthia Banek, wanted to marry an "honest man," she wouldn't have married Ben Affleck's character, Gavin. She might have chosen English professor John Fleming GS '63.
"I could have married a professor of Middle English, with tenure at Princeton," she told Affleck at a posh restaurant in downtown Manhattan in the movie "Changing Lanes."
"But I married a Wall Street lawyer."
When looking for honesty, her character prefers Tigers, but Peet the actress likes Lions. She graduated from Columbia University in 1994 and tops a new top-10 list of Ivy League stars on Netscape's celebrity website netscape.com/celebrity.
The list includes only one Princeton alumnus, David Duchovny '82 of "X-Files" fame. A few other alumni have gone on to appear on the silver screen, including two-time Oscar winner Jimmy Stewart '32 and onetime Princeton couple Brooke Shields '89 and Dean Cain '88.
Princetonians in the spotlight are only going to increase as the career of Kate Bosworth '07 of "Blue Crush" heats up, and religion professor Cornel West GS '80 appears in the sequels to "The Matrix" as a Zion elder named Counselor West. The producers read West's philosophical works and wanted to include him in the films.
And while not starring in films, characters based on Princeton faculty and alumni have been featured on the big screen — including Woodrow Wilson 1879, Albert Einstein, former Dean of the Chapel Ernest Gordon and John Nash GS '50, in the Oscar-winning movie "A Beautiful Mind."
John Fleming in the movies
Fleming, in addition to being known for his weekly Daily Princetonian columns, is famous on campus for his lectures on the naughty tales of Chaucer, the greatest poet of Middle English.
Fleming hasn't seen "Changing Lanes," but said he's considering buying a copy on e-Bay after receiving many emails informing him that his celebrity may have extended beyond the gate.
He said he had heard a rumor that the head writer for "Changing Lanes," Michael Tolkin, was impressed by a lecture Fleming gave in 1996 or 1997 at a mini P-rade on the back lot of Universal Studios in Hollywood.
"I don't remember what I lectured about, but I do remember the larger event vividly, as it was one of the more bizarre events surrounding the 250th celebration [of Princeton,]" he said. "The line of march ended up at the Roman temple from 'Spartacus,' where everyone sang 'Old Nassau.'"
Peet began preparing for her acting career as early as many Ivy League students start preparing for the SATs. At age three, she jumped onstage (uninvited) at a play. While she was studying history at Columbia, a drama professor suggested she pursue drama.
Other members on the Ivy League celebrity list include Amy Brenneman (Harvard), Elizabeth Shue (Harvard), Anna Paquin (Columbia), Jodi Foster (Yale), Claire Danes (Yale), Ed Norton (Yale), Natalie Portman (Harvard) and Julia Stiles (Columbia).
Reaching for a star
The road to stardom for Duchovny was a bit rocky. The future FBI Agent Fox Mulder came to Princeton a star basketball player, but he didn't do well on the team here and quit after his first year. He thought he would turn to a career in academia and writing and joined Charter Club, a decision he later lamented because of its distance down the Street. He went to Yale Drama School after Princeton.
He hasn't returned to Princeton since he left and hasn't expressed great admiration for his time here, but he did defend his alma mater on "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn" on June 5, 2001.
"You're a bright guy," Kilborn, the tall, wise-guy late night host, said to Duchovny.
"You went to Princeton, which is a good school," Kilborn continued. "Like, it's a notch below the Stanfords and Northwesterns, but—"
Duchovny initially played down his academic credentials, in the same way that Princeton students respond that they go to college in "New Jersey," while wearing orange and black socks, pant cuffs a little high.
He also appeared to mistakenly think that Kilborn attended Northwestern.
Kilborn pushed on. "You're a bright guy, and you've got to show off how bright you are on 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.'" "Oh," Duchovny replied, "yeah, yeah."
Kilborn then went for the kill. He made fun of Duchovny for getting a question wrong on the "Millionaire" show: to name the movie for which this was the last line: "Good luck among them, English."
Duchovny selected "Braveheart." Wrong, losing on the $500,000 question.
The correct answer was "Witness," as Kilborn pointed out on his show.
Duchovny, though, explained why he erred, and Kilborn knew the right answer.
"Well, it would be that Northwestern education," Duchovny conceded, "because he was out at the movies while I was studying."
Into the business
At Princeton, many students choose to enter the business side of Hollywood rather than the acting side, said Michael Cadden, who directs the drama and theater program. He pointed out, however, that most of Hollywood happens behind the camera.
Going into acting seems "un-Princeton to the extent that people are at Princeton used to following tracks that have already been laid down," Cadden said. "They leap from school to school to school and then into a job that's another version of school at some investment banking firm or law firm."
For students electing to perform — many come from the numerous productions each weekend — "you're pretty much left to your own devices," he said. "There's no track. Everyone has to find their own."
Will Staples '96 now runs a Hollywood support group for Princetonians, including an alumni email list and a Hollywood committee, but he even started out in investment banking.
"Getting into Hollywood, the Princeton network is really strong out here right now," Staples said. "And so for people who want to go into producing especially or working at an agency, it's very easy to get placed within six weeks of getting in town."
"As far as acting or directing and screen writing," he continued, "those are more unreliable tracks."
Staples encouraged current undergraduates to get in touch with alumni on the list, available through the TigerNet website (tigernet.princeton.edu).
Fleming, reflecting on the idea that professors could be considered more "moral" than Wall Street lawyers, said such a comparison "is not unlike being told that something is slightly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."
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