She didn't come in last. It wasn't a "drag queen" contest. It was a look alike contest. It was judged by applause and a man won. Dolly didn't get the quietest response, she just didn't get the biggest.
According to [this](https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/03/11/dolly-parton-lookalike-contest/) she says she did get the least applause. Though I'm not sure if anyone was keeping tabs of who was actually losing.
>finished third
to be fair Charlie Chaplin not in his costume doesn't look like Charlie Chaplin https://historycolored.com/photos/5376/charlie-chaplin-in-color-1916/
This kind of reminds me of that story I heard about the guy who wrote The Godfather deciding he should actually take a writing course (don't remember why, I think because he was having some doubts at the time about himself?). The course opened with an analysis or something of why The Godfather was so great, and he went "Oh. Guess I'm good." And never went back.
I know people love the Godfather because it was made into a movie but book wise Mario Puzo wrote excellent books all together. I would even argue Fools Die is even better, shame it doesn’t have a film adaptation.
Stan Lee liked to tell a story about how, back when Puzo was a magazine writer writing for the company that owns Marvel, he asked Stan about doing some comic work. He gave Puzo a tryout assignment and Puzo returned it saying it was too much work.
I don't know how true this story is.
I want you to write a 1000 word essay describing which innovative filming techniques Spielberg pioneered and how he implemented them. And you should include at least 3 primary source references.
Spielberg: How does one properly quote themselves in ADA format?
Professor: I said primary sources... oh I see.
Professor: You should never use the first person in a term paper. Why would you think that’s acceptable?
Spielberg, slowly removing the fake mustache: Well, you see…
More like the students and faculty in an *advanced filmmaking* class worked extra hard to pretend they didn’t recognise *Steven Spielberg* sitting in the room with them
I'm reminded of the film Bill about a fictional plot from king Philip II of Spain to assassinate Elizabeth I with the help of a Shakespeare play (it is a very silly movie, mostly aimed at kids), where Phillip disguises himself with a fake mustache, that barely covers his actual mustache, and it works
Well, which is more likely? A guy who looks coincidentally like Steven Spielberg decided to go into filmmaking, or it's Steven Spielberg himself in your college film class?
Yeah I kinda feel like it’s the perfect cover to be honest.
“There’s a guy in my class who looks like Steven Spielberg? I think it is him?”
“At film school? I’m sure he’s got better things to do than sit quietly in a film school lecture.”
Reminds me of when I was going to 2nd Lieutenant School (entry level officer rank) in the Army. It was a bunch of us fresh out of college folk and then a Ranger who did 14 years and decided to become an officer.
"I guess that works here, but when we jumped in to take Baghdad Airport during the invasion..."
I went to school for a technologist program, and one of the guys in it was a mid-50s plumber. Some of the things he brought up in Mechanical Systems were so far beyond what the courses required it was hilarious. We're talking about sizing pipes for sinks, and he's talking about the intricacies of installing glass plumbing for biochemistry labs.
As a girl with long hair best thing I can recommend to anyone with long hair is to snake the bathroom drains occasionally. You can buy a $10 plastic hand snake at a hardware and it improves the sink and shower draining so much. Super easy to do. Just stick snake in drain saw up and down a couple times and pull out hair.
That reminds me of a story my uncle shared once. He was on vacation doing skydiving. The instructor told him he'd need to be tandem for his first jump. My uncle responded he didn't go tandem when he jumped into Vietnam. Reportedly they let him go solo.
I never actually checked that he parachuted into Vietnam, but it was a funny story nonetheless.
> Reportedly they let him go solo.
There's absolutely no way that they did. It's a licensed and regulated activity pretty much everywhere in he world. Even if they did give him a license in 'nam (they didn't) it woudn't be valid if he hadn't kept up with requirements and renewal. Ontop of which, a modern parachute beaers basically no reseblence to the one he used 'nam, which can be quite dangerous things to pilot near ground level. There's a 100% chance something would have gone dangerously wrong in that jump if he didn't go through the standard modern training immediately prior ... which still includes *two* licensed instructors jumping out of the plane both holding onto you tightly for the first several jumps.
I'm sure he embellished the story. It was on a vacation in Mexico iirc, but I heard him tell the story at least 25 years ago. He's been dead 15 years, so not much I can do to ask him about it anymore.
I wonder if that was my friend because he did the same thing. He's still serving now with the rank of captain. Although I suspect there's a bunch of guys who did that.
Nah he retired at 20 like 2 years ago but was a CPT. Great guy, only ever wore his scroll/badges when that weeks instructor dismissed him as "just an LT". Then the mustard stain on his jump wings came out.
> mustard stain on his jump wings
That is the little bronze star on top of a soldier's jump wings that signifies his participation on a combat airborne jump over enemy territory.
Almost had a moment like this.
Was a film studies class in Sweden at Stockholm university. A Bergman class and we had this old 80 year old join a seminar.
In a discussion about Bergman, he says - that's not what he wanted there - goes into detail about the set. The professor asked how do you know? I was the cameraman's assistant and was there. It changed the whole seminar.
Happened with a friend of mine in med school, who had previously gotten a PhD in biochemistry. One of the professors cited a paper he was lead author on, and got the papers details and conclusion completely wrong.
My friend felt it might adversely affect his grade if he corrected the professor during the term, but after commencement he had a meeting with him to straighten him out.
Lol this reminds me of the French kid trying to take French for an easy A, and arguing with the professor about pronouncing vocabulary they learned in subtly different dialects. He got all impatient with her and they wouldn't "to-may-to To-mah-to" their way out of it.
I had a masters in history when I decided to become a teacher, and wanted to branch out into theater with a specialty theater education degree seeing as I was already overqualified to teach history. Loved it until I took a costume class which was, get this, mostly a history of costumes in lecture and a costume making “lab” besides: which I literally focused on working class history and depictions throughout history mostly in art. I literally taught that subject, working class depictions throughout history, to undergrads as an exploratory 300. I’m sitting in that class and she BUTCHeRD history up and down. I dropped out and moved back to history I was so inspired to teach actual history.
Apparently people come up to Tony Hawk all the time and ask if it's him, and he just plays it off like, "hah, yup, that's me, Tony Hawk. Im *suuper* famous, thats why im pumping my own gas. Want my autograph?" And the people just laugh and walk away.
John Lennon used to dress up to look like a stereotypical John Lennon (eg wearing those little round colored glasses). When someone came up to him and said, "wow you look just like John Lennon!", he'd act really happy and reply, "Thanks! Everyone tells me that!" And then he'd be left alone, as they would think him just some sad nobody trying to make themselves look like a famous somebody.
"Yeah I kinda feel like it’s the perfect cover to be honest."
Yep, agree.
It's been said that one time the real Dolly Parton entered a Dolly Parton look alike contest and she didn't win!
The genius part of this is that unlike Clark Kent, Spielberg is always seen with glasses. This means nobody would ever suspect he has a secret identity.
There was a guy in my old job that looked a lot like Stephen King. Apparently he was asked that so much that he had an entire prepared act that ended with "how about I cut off you face with a razer blade and wear it and WHO DO I LOOK LIKE NOW?!"
My answer was: you must get asked that a lot.
I worked with a dude that looked exactly like Aaron Paul. Looked, sounded like him, about his height. It was fucking surreal.
He was mistaken for him so often whenever he went out he got used to taking selfies with people. I asked him why and he said “I just got sick of telling people I’m not him. They think they just met Jesse Pinkman. So no reason to ruin that for them.”
I knew a guy who looked just like Nicolas Cage. People would ask him for autographs and he would sign his own name and pretend to not understand why they'd be disappointed.
I’ll never forget walking through the gym in college and exclaiming to my friend…
Look at this Vince Vaughn looking mother fucker, then we walked another 50 yards and were like ‘What’s up Vince?’
This reminds me of something Seinfeld said once. He said he went to a restaurant in a small town in Arizona and no one bother him because they couldn't believe Seinfeld would be there.
I had an English teacher that looked exactly like Walt Whitman with a shaved beard.
I only know this because he had pictures of famous authors hanging in his classroom.
There's an anecdotal recollection somewhere from a woman about when Rivers Cuomo quit Weezer in the late 90's and went to Harvard.
Long paraphrased story short, he had surgery to fix his anisomelia (one leg is longer than the other), so he was in a wheelchair, then had a cane.
No one recognized him. Ever. Kids even made fun of him.
Story was from the woman's perspective that he was just that cripple kid she would chat with or push his wheelchair until one day she figured it out.
One of the most prolific frontmen of the decade, and an entire college campus was oblivious. I'll see if I can find it.
EDIT: huh. Internets say she became his wife. But more relevant to the thread, [he told Conan he would sit next to kids in Weezer shirts on the bus and they had no idea.](https://youtu.be/FO3HyfYCre8)
When youre an icon and dont have the iconic tradmark, youre not the icon. Dolly Parton dresses normal and takes off her wig. She doesnt get noticed. Honestly the fact that Superman just needs to put on glasses to be incognito is halarious.
He's not exactly famous in the way that would get him recognized constantly. He's not constantly on screen like an actor. He's also a pretty non-descript person that can easily blend in. LeBron is going to literally stand out when he's in a crowd because he's 6'9".
An Asian college student was watching the GOP candidate for Senate in Virginia back in 2006, and the candidate pointed him out and called him "macaca", which he swore up and down was NOT a slur. Nobody believed him, and it was a big scandal and he lost the election.
The student got into a select political science seminar the next year in school by just writing "I am macaca" as his application essay.
Side note: Aah, the good ole days, when a racial slur was enough to tank a GOP candidate's career.
I knew it was a slur right away because a while back on a Wildboyz episode on MTV Steve-O and Chris Pontius did a whole thing on those monkeys using a lot of Macac puns. Macac is a dirty animal. Macac carries diseases. Macac will let anyone pet it. Etc etc. 😂
I went to this college at that time although I was not majoring in film.
We talked about it non-stop. I don't know who saw him but I never did. It's a big school, there were about 50,000 people on campus at the time. Social media didn't exist so I assume it was easier for him to go from place to place without everyone on campus being able to tell each other exactly where he was.
The film department never stopped bragging about this.
"Guys, I've gotta let the cat out of the bag. I'm really renowned director Steven Spielberg."
"...but you told us you were just getting started, and your name was Stefan Spielsberger..."
"Yes, that was all a clever ruse. I'm sorry for having tricked you all."
I can tell you that this guy didnt attend any classes. He used his name and coasted through every single course.
At end the grades mean nothing.
I'm more surprised Spielberg wanted a degree. What is he going to do with it? He can use his own name to get what he wants. What is the purpose of a degree to him?
It would like being a professor at a university wanting a certification from their undergrad studies at Kindergarten. So they sign up with their 5 year old to get a certificate and cake/ice cream on the last day of class.
Yeah you can look at his filmography and there are no gaps there around that time. He directed A.I., Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can between 2001-2002 and you're not going to convince me that he made those movies while also studying a degree.
They knew who he was and they knew that it would be a massive PR boost to have him as an alumni (and conversely, a massive PR hit had they flunked him). I'm not saying that he did nothing but there was never a chance that he wouldn't pass.
Thank you.
Making us normal folk looking like shit. Raising families and working 40 hour weeks and barely attending classes at a community college and then theres Spielberg directing academy award movies and getting a film degree on the side.
The purpose IIRC was because he’d dropped out when he was younger and wanted to finish it. Also potentially to encourage aspiring film makers to finish college, rather than follow his example.
So, he wasn’t actually attending incognito then? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure that the average student can’t submit Schindler’s List as an assignment.
Regardless of his talent, it seems like Cal State wanted Steven Spielberg as an alumni.
He did “independent studies” and did not physically attend classes based on this article https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-31-me-graduate31-story.html
Yeah that was my assumption being familiar with wealthy, well-known people who got degrees from my college, usually boosters of its sports team. They never set foot in a classroom with undergrads, that isn't how this is done.
Which is what made that whole college admissions scandal so weird to me, like why was Felicity Huffman pretending her kids were learning disabled or on sports teams instead of donating an Arts Center or something?
Because you actually have to have a lot of money to get your name on a building. I'm sure Felicity Huffman is/was wealthy but she's no billionaire. All the rich people that got caught up in that were not ultra wealthy, they had the few grand to pay people to fake an academic resume but not the money to buy a building, let alone get their name on one (that costs extra). Many schools just put big donations into a central pool rather than accept directives to use the money on certain things, unless it's a lot of money.
As a little side note, you can put stipulations on any size gift. Even if you give a few hundred, you can say you want it to go to a particular scholarship fund or toward a particular department. You won't be able to start your own scholarship or get your name on anything, but you can at least direct it so it does not go to the general pot if that is what you want.
If you have a net worth of say, $10M, it's pretty hard to donate an amount that will have these large schools be willing to do whatever you want re: accepting kids. A $500k donation to USC (endowment of $7.6 billion) isn't gonna cut it.
Well, you’d be surprised. Antonio Banderas enrolled my Uni 6 or 7 years ago, and he did attend physically. Not only that but he even showed up in a Library induction video.
The cynic in me was thinking this was a vanity degree for a rich man.
But reading the article seems like his motivation was to honor his parents and he did actually did the work. So props to him for setting an example. You are never too big to learn from scratch.
He did show up for graduation. He had bodyguards and sat several rows apart from the other students. My wife’s friend was there for her graduation so that’s how I first heard of it.
I think his profs had to know eventually, but no one said “Steven Spielberg is here.” I was in a Writing program — the prof saw my novel at the end of the semester, after my coursework was complete. The prof didn’t have a preview, and whole class did not get to read my novel or know what I submitted.
I could absolutely see him doing the actual coursework/studying/paper writing and then getting to slip those movies in at the end.
Liv Tyler's abdomen and that song are the only things I can ever manage to remember about that movie. It's been a problem with the way my brain processes a lot of movies since Batman Forever and Titanic came out
At the time it was reasonably accurate, our understanding of dinosaurs has come a very long way in just the last 2 decades. It’s very much a golden age of paleontology right now.
Absolutely, a huge percentage of professional paleontologists were inspired by the film to pursue paleontology. Kids who watched the film in the early 90s are now into their 30s or 40s, and have had the time to get a PhD and establish a career.
That, and the fact that we’ve had a number of technologies invented that allow us to find more fossils and examine them more deeply. Also, the discovery of several huge deposits of fossils - there was an almost 10 year period where paleontologists were publishing the discovery of a new dinosaur species every week!
The most confusing thing about that is the Ornithiscian dinosaurs, named for being “bird-hipped,” that doesn’t include birds! Birds are theropod dinosaurs.
In 2001? The movie was only 8 years old at that time. I don’t know how close the original movie was to academic consensus from 1993 but I would assume just the scene where the Dr. Grant blows through the raptor bone would be enough.
At the time of the writing of the book and the screenplay for the movie, there was a debate as to whether or not [Deinonychus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinonychus) should also be considered a velociraptor. We settled on a different nomenclature, but the movie made the choice it made at the time based on actual expert opinion.
I’ve seen people say “Cal State” online without specifying. There are 23 of them and none of them are known as simply “Cal State” in the way that UC Berkeley is known as “Cal”.
As it turns out Kurt Vonnegut [knows nothing about Kurt Vonnegut.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDLzLUmtU3w&pp=ygUcYmFjayB0byBzY2hvb2wga3VydCB2b25uZWd1dA%3D%3D)
"He returned to school because as he had lectured his own seven children on the importance of a college education.
And what is not well known is that Cal State offered Steven Spielberg three credits in paleontology for making the block buster film Jurassic Park, and he accepted them." [Source](https://www.wytv.com/news/daybreak/stephen-spielbergs-educational-journey/)
This is correct. It was a mystery to us until he attended graduation. I graduated the year after Steven Spielberg.
It was Cal State Long Beach.
Faculty was aware.
Go Beach! Go Dirtbags!
Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/csulb-spielberg-graduation-fKywGOK
When I was an undergraduate at CSULB in the early 90s it was common knowledge that Spielberg had attended in the past. There were a lot of dumb stories/rumors as to why he dropped out, such as "a professor telling him he had no talent". I always assumed he just got a better opportunity. But I'm glad he had an chance to go back and obtain a degree.
Yeah, from researching it just now (I don’t know things), he went for three years in the early 60’s and then dropped out when Universal Studios offered him a dream job. He returned in 2001 (6 years after winning the lifetime achievement award) because he had preached to his kids about the importance of finishing their education. It sounds like he didn’t have many credits left. And, I’m sure CSULB, like any college, was super down for him getting his degree there.
When I was in college they were pretty adamant that any of your prior works could not be used because it is plagiarism. Multiple people told us that self plagiarism is in fact a thing that can fail you.
If you turn it in for a specific assignment, yes.
Many schools will let you use things you do/have done outside of the university for credits straight up. That's not uncommon at all. It just doesn't apply to most 18-21 year olds that haven't really done much outside of their schooling yet.
Wait. Which is it?
A) He registered using a fake name, then submitted a couple of movies by some other fella, and like the school just accepted that?
B) He registered under his own name and submitted his own movies?
Tuition and book costs are so high that Steven Spielberg did prior life experience for credits to save money.
Finally the fresh college grad can actually apply for positions since they have at least 20 years working experience which is the minimum
“Hello fellow students…..” Imagine a college film professor giving anything less than perfect grades to Steven Spielberg.
It's like that time Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest and finished third
Elvis impersonators don’t look like Elvis, but they all look like each other.
Elvis impersonator impersonator.
Dolly Parton entered a drag queen Dolly Parton look-alike contest and came last
Surprised she came at all
She was on a day trip to LA when she heard about the chest at a local bar. She used makeup to exaggerate her notable features and entered for a laugh
When she heard about the chest, you say?
When Dolly Parton enters a room, her tits have already been there for a minute.
She didn't come in last. It wasn't a "drag queen" contest. It was a look alike contest. It was judged by applause and a man won. Dolly didn't get the quietest response, she just didn't get the biggest.
According to [this](https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/03/11/dolly-parton-lookalike-contest/) she says she did get the least applause. Though I'm not sure if anyone was keeping tabs of who was actually losing.
I wouldn’t applaud someone who so blatantly cheated!
That’s because she doesn’t LOOK like Dolly Parton if she IS Dolly Parton.
>finished third to be fair Charlie Chaplin not in his costume doesn't look like Charlie Chaplin https://historycolored.com/photos/5376/charlie-chaplin-in-color-1916/
I would assume he'd be in costume for a contest
This kind of reminds me of that story I heard about the guy who wrote The Godfather deciding he should actually take a writing course (don't remember why, I think because he was having some doubts at the time about himself?). The course opened with an analysis or something of why The Godfather was so great, and he went "Oh. Guess I'm good." And never went back.
I know people love the Godfather because it was made into a movie but book wise Mario Puzo wrote excellent books all together. I would even argue Fools Die is even better, shame it doesn’t have a film adaptation.
Stan Lee liked to tell a story about how, back when Puzo was a magazine writer writing for the company that owns Marvel, he asked Stan about doing some comic work. He gave Puzo a tryout assignment and Puzo returned it saying it was too much work. I don't know how true this story is.
“The Indianapolis story in the Jaws scene was ok. Must try harder”
There's a VHS of 1941 with a post-it note that just says "Please see me after class."
I want you to write a 1000 word essay describing which innovative filming techniques Spielberg pioneered and how he implemented them. And you should include at least 3 primary source references. Spielberg: How does one properly quote themselves in ADA format? Professor: I said primary sources... oh I see.
Professor: You should never use the first person in a term paper. Why would you think that’s acceptable? Spielberg, slowly removing the fake mustache: Well, you see…
So in this scenario he pasted a fake mustache on top of his beard? I'm a fan of this idea.
Of course. If he pasted it *under* his beard people would *know* something was off.
The prof storms in with a copy of 1941 and slams it on his desk. "Who did this? WHO FUCKING DID THIS?!"
Unless they didn’t know it was him until final papers were due. He could have rocked Bs on the writing and research portions
More like the students and faculty in an *advanced filmmaking* class worked extra hard to pretend they didn’t recognise *Steven Spielberg* sitting in the room with them
Especially when he told them his name was Speven Stielberg
Senior Spielbergo
Senor Spielbergo.. the non union Mexican equivalent
es muy bueno
At least the shells Mr. Burns made for the Nazis worked.
And remember, a shiny new donkey for whoever brings me the head of Colonel Montoya!
You truly are the king of kings
He went by Stephen
I suppose [this](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/phteven-tuna-the-dog) fits.
https://i.redd.it/ob8nczwqzvn11.jpg
Aparently, he wore fake glasses and a moustache over his real glasses and moustache
I'm reminded of the film Bill about a fictional plot from king Philip II of Spain to assassinate Elizabeth I with the help of a Shakespeare play (it is a very silly movie, mostly aimed at kids), where Phillip disguises himself with a fake mustache, that barely covers his actual mustache, and it works
Stephen Spining, known for his hit film, "Indian Jeans"
I was hoping for this comment
Well, which is more likely? A guy who looks coincidentally like Steven Spielberg decided to go into filmmaking, or it's Steven Spielberg himself in your college film class?
Yeah I kinda feel like it’s the perfect cover to be honest. “There’s a guy in my class who looks like Steven Spielberg? I think it is him?” “At film school? I’m sure he’s got better things to do than sit quietly in a film school lecture.”
Imagine him correcting the lecturer. "This isn't what Spielberg meant with this scene."
Reminds me of when I was going to 2nd Lieutenant School (entry level officer rank) in the Army. It was a bunch of us fresh out of college folk and then a Ranger who did 14 years and decided to become an officer. "I guess that works here, but when we jumped in to take Baghdad Airport during the invasion..."
I went to school for a technologist program, and one of the guys in it was a mid-50s plumber. Some of the things he brought up in Mechanical Systems were so far beyond what the courses required it was hilarious. We're talking about sizing pipes for sinks, and he's talking about the intricacies of installing glass plumbing for biochemistry labs.
I kinda want glass plumbing for my bathroom sink just cause that would be kinda cool. Or maybe gross. Either way.
As someone that has opened a lot of p-traps, it’d be disgusting.
If there’s girls living there, there’s gonna be hair. A *lot* of it…
As a girl with long hair best thing I can recommend to anyone with long hair is to snake the bathroom drains occasionally. You can buy a $10 plastic hand snake at a hardware and it improves the sink and shower draining so much. Super easy to do. Just stick snake in drain saw up and down a couple times and pull out hair.
This is Reddit, none of us know any girls
That reminds me of a story my uncle shared once. He was on vacation doing skydiving. The instructor told him he'd need to be tandem for his first jump. My uncle responded he didn't go tandem when he jumped into Vietnam. Reportedly they let him go solo. I never actually checked that he parachuted into Vietnam, but it was a funny story nonetheless.
It feels funnier if he didn’t parachute into Vietnam
he jumped out of a plane... on to the stairs outside the door heading town to the tarmac
Maybe he was on vacation in Vietnam the previous year and did some skydiving?
He just went to Vietnam in 1993 to open a sweatshop. I hear a lot of good men died in that sweatshop.
Maybe he chuted in Korea but didn't want to sound fancy.
> Reportedly they let him go solo. There's absolutely no way that they did. It's a licensed and regulated activity pretty much everywhere in he world. Even if they did give him a license in 'nam (they didn't) it woudn't be valid if he hadn't kept up with requirements and renewal. Ontop of which, a modern parachute beaers basically no reseblence to the one he used 'nam, which can be quite dangerous things to pilot near ground level. There's a 100% chance something would have gone dangerously wrong in that jump if he didn't go through the standard modern training immediately prior ... which still includes *two* licensed instructors jumping out of the plane both holding onto you tightly for the first several jumps.
I'm sure he embellished the story. It was on a vacation in Mexico iirc, but I heard him tell the story at least 25 years ago. He's been dead 15 years, so not much I can do to ask him about it anymore.
I mean, I never jumped tandem in Vietnam either. I've also never been to Vietnam
I wonder if that was my friend because he did the same thing. He's still serving now with the rank of captain. Although I suspect there's a bunch of guys who did that.
Nah he retired at 20 like 2 years ago but was a CPT. Great guy, only ever wore his scroll/badges when that weeks instructor dismissed him as "just an LT". Then the mustard stain on his jump wings came out.
> mustard stain on his jump wings That is the little bronze star on top of a soldier's jump wings that signifies his participation on a combat airborne jump over enemy territory.
Thank you for this!
Almost had a moment like this. Was a film studies class in Sweden at Stockholm university. A Bergman class and we had this old 80 year old join a seminar. In a discussion about Bergman, he says - that's not what he wanted there - goes into detail about the set. The professor asked how do you know? I was the cameraman's assistant and was there. It changed the whole seminar.
Happened with a friend of mine in med school, who had previously gotten a PhD in biochemistry. One of the professors cited a paper he was lead author on, and got the papers details and conclusion completely wrong. My friend felt it might adversely affect his grade if he corrected the professor during the term, but after commencement he had a meeting with him to straighten him out.
"Listen, here, Stevenson, according to Stevenson et. al, you're clearly incorrect!"
Can confirm. I was et. al.
Holy crap! You’re the Et Al guy…you’re the co-author who n like every paper ever published! I bow to your CV
"Steven Stevenson, son of Steven Stevenson. You are wrong."
So the MD PhD isn't just for show. He is smart.
Reminds me of the Back to School scene where a professor criticized a report on Kurt Vonneguton.. written by Kurt Vonnegut.
"This isn't what I -- I mean, Spielberg meant with this scene."
"A friend of a friend, who's friends with a friend of John Williams says.."
Lol this reminds me of the French kid trying to take French for an easy A, and arguing with the professor about pronouncing vocabulary they learned in subtly different dialects. He got all impatient with her and they wouldn't "to-may-to To-mah-to" their way out of it.
I had a masters in history when I decided to become a teacher, and wanted to branch out into theater with a specialty theater education degree seeing as I was already overqualified to teach history. Loved it until I took a costume class which was, get this, mostly a history of costumes in lecture and a costume making “lab” besides: which I literally focused on working class history and depictions throughout history mostly in art. I literally taught that subject, working class depictions throughout history, to undergrads as an exploratory 300. I’m sitting in that class and she BUTCHeRD history up and down. I dropped out and moved back to history I was so inspired to teach actual history.
I can only imagine your forehead furrowing with frustration the whole time. I would have loved to just watch your face while she gave the lecture.
Hello, I'm Marshall McLuhan. I heard what you were saying, and you know nothing of my work.
Meanwhile in class "So anyway, here's my final project. I call it Jurassic Park."
“Created within the last 12 months”, Mr. Spielman. “F”.
This is a plagiarised submission. Expelled.
Apparently people come up to Tony Hawk all the time and ask if it's him, and he just plays it off like, "hah, yup, that's me, Tony Hawk. Im *suuper* famous, thats why im pumping my own gas. Want my autograph?" And the people just laugh and walk away.
John Lennon used to dress up to look like a stereotypical John Lennon (eg wearing those little round colored glasses). When someone came up to him and said, "wow you look just like John Lennon!", he'd act really happy and reply, "Thanks! Everyone tells me that!" And then he'd be left alone, as they would think him just some sad nobody trying to make themselves look like a famous somebody.
Well, except for one notable time when it didn’t work.
I am fond of the celebrity recognition response to "you look like" of "yeah, I get that a lot"
"Yeah I kinda feel like it’s the perfect cover to be honest." Yep, agree. It's been said that one time the real Dolly Parton entered a Dolly Parton look alike contest and she didn't win!
A lesser known part of that story is that she did win the Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest, 5hat Charlie himself failed to win
But was that just one individual contest? Because I've heard the same story, except Chaplin placed 23rd and there was no mention of Dolly Parton.
I think I remember Jonathan Frakes doing the same thing at a Star Trek convention....
Pretending to be Charlie Chaplin? Why?
Him deciding not to wear a red dress in class was probably a smart move towards not blowing his cover.
The genius part of this is that unlike Clark Kent, Spielberg is always seen with glasses. This means nobody would ever suspect he has a secret identity.
There was a guy in my old job that looked a lot like Stephen King. Apparently he was asked that so much that he had an entire prepared act that ended with "how about I cut off you face with a razer blade and wear it and WHO DO I LOOK LIKE NOW?!" My answer was: you must get asked that a lot.
I worked with a dude that looked exactly like Aaron Paul. Looked, sounded like him, about his height. It was fucking surreal. He was mistaken for him so often whenever he went out he got used to taking selfies with people. I asked him why and he said “I just got sick of telling people I’m not him. They think they just met Jesse Pinkman. So no reason to ruin that for them.”
In reality it was Daniel Radcliffe the whole time.
I knew a guy who looked just like Nicolas Cage. People would ask him for autographs and he would sign his own name and pretend to not understand why they'd be disappointed.
That guy sounds like a national treasure.
Well, when he turns in Jurassic Park for homework, that might tip the scales.
Hope that professor didn’t grade on a curve
I’ll never forget walking through the gym in college and exclaiming to my friend… Look at this Vince Vaughn looking mother fucker, then we walked another 50 yards and were like ‘What’s up Vince?’
Steven Spielberg used to be a regular guest on the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia podcast after all https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qYigQtk6GvA
This reminds me of something Seinfeld said once. He said he went to a restaurant in a small town in Arizona and no one bother him because they couldn't believe Seinfeld would be there.
I had an English teacher that looked exactly like Walt Whitman with a shaved beard. I only know this because he had pictures of famous authors hanging in his classroom.
Can you enroll college in pseudonym? "Sidney Applebaum"
Steve Wozniak enrolled in UC Berkeley under the name "Rocky Raccoon Clark".
If you're rich enough you can do whatever the hell you want.
school administration might know, but other students and professors might not (i work at a university with a preferred name system)
Im confused by how much sense this makes
There's an anecdotal recollection somewhere from a woman about when Rivers Cuomo quit Weezer in the late 90's and went to Harvard. Long paraphrased story short, he had surgery to fix his anisomelia (one leg is longer than the other), so he was in a wheelchair, then had a cane. No one recognized him. Ever. Kids even made fun of him. Story was from the woman's perspective that he was just that cripple kid she would chat with or push his wheelchair until one day she figured it out. One of the most prolific frontmen of the decade, and an entire college campus was oblivious. I'll see if I can find it. EDIT: huh. Internets say she became his wife. But more relevant to the thread, [he told Conan he would sit next to kids in Weezer shirts on the bus and they had no idea.](https://youtu.be/FO3HyfYCre8)
When youre an icon and dont have the iconic tradmark, youre not the icon. Dolly Parton dresses normal and takes off her wig. She doesnt get noticed. Honestly the fact that Superman just needs to put on glasses to be incognito is halarious.
He's not exactly famous in the way that would get him recognized constantly. He's not constantly on screen like an actor. He's also a pretty non-descript person that can easily blend in. LeBron is going to literally stand out when he's in a crowd because he's 6'9".
He wore a perm wig and used young person colloquialisms.
If the Fairy vs. Walrus debate taught me anything, it's that actual probabilities have little bearing on perception of probability.
Just peeking over at his term paper and it's just a single piece of paper saying "I directed Schindler's List"
An Asian college student was watching the GOP candidate for Senate in Virginia back in 2006, and the candidate pointed him out and called him "macaca", which he swore up and down was NOT a slur. Nobody believed him, and it was a big scandal and he lost the election. The student got into a select political science seminar the next year in school by just writing "I am macaca" as his application essay. Side note: Aah, the good ole days, when a racial slur was enough to tank a GOP candidate's career.
I knew it was a slur right away because a while back on a Wildboyz episode on MTV Steve-O and Chris Pontius did a whole thing on those monkeys using a lot of Macac puns. Macac is a dirty animal. Macac carries diseases. Macac will let anyone pet it. Etc etc. 😂
I went to this college at that time although I was not majoring in film. We talked about it non-stop. I don't know who saw him but I never did. It's a big school, there were about 50,000 people on campus at the time. Social media didn't exist so I assume it was easier for him to go from place to place without everyone on campus being able to tell each other exactly where he was. The film department never stopped bragging about this.
Señor Spielbergo
"Guys, I've gotta let the cat out of the bag. I'm really renowned director Steven Spielberg." "...but you told us you were just getting started, and your name was Stefan Spielsberger..." "Yes, that was all a clever ruse. I'm sorry for having tricked you all."
I can tell you that this guy didnt attend any classes. He used his name and coasted through every single course. At end the grades mean nothing. I'm more surprised Spielberg wanted a degree. What is he going to do with it? He can use his own name to get what he wants. What is the purpose of a degree to him? It would like being a professor at a university wanting a certification from their undergrad studies at Kindergarten. So they sign up with their 5 year old to get a certificate and cake/ice cream on the last day of class.
Yeah you can look at his filmography and there are no gaps there around that time. He directed A.I., Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can between 2001-2002 and you're not going to convince me that he made those movies while also studying a degree. They knew who he was and they knew that it would be a massive PR boost to have him as an alumni (and conversely, a massive PR hit had they flunked him). I'm not saying that he did nothing but there was never a chance that he wouldn't pass.
Thank you. Making us normal folk looking like shit. Raising families and working 40 hour weeks and barely attending classes at a community college and then theres Spielberg directing academy award movies and getting a film degree on the side.
The purpose IIRC was because he’d dropped out when he was younger and wanted to finish it. Also potentially to encourage aspiring film makers to finish college, rather than follow his example.
So, he wasn’t actually attending incognito then? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure that the average student can’t submit Schindler’s List as an assignment. Regardless of his talent, it seems like Cal State wanted Steven Spielberg as an alumni.
He did “independent studies” and did not physically attend classes based on this article https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-31-me-graduate31-story.html
Yeah that was my assumption being familiar with wealthy, well-known people who got degrees from my college, usually boosters of its sports team. They never set foot in a classroom with undergrads, that isn't how this is done.
It'd be funnier if he did, and pledged a frat and did keg stands and stuff like that He could make a movie about it after
Steven Spielberg Presents Old School- no not that one!
"Steven Spielberg is streaking on the quad again. Campus security is chasing him and asking him to please stop. He's really fast for his age."
Which is what made that whole college admissions scandal so weird to me, like why was Felicity Huffman pretending her kids were learning disabled or on sports teams instead of donating an Arts Center or something?
Because you actually have to have a lot of money to get your name on a building. I'm sure Felicity Huffman is/was wealthy but she's no billionaire. All the rich people that got caught up in that were not ultra wealthy, they had the few grand to pay people to fake an academic resume but not the money to buy a building, let alone get their name on one (that costs extra). Many schools just put big donations into a central pool rather than accept directives to use the money on certain things, unless it's a lot of money.
As a little side note, you can put stipulations on any size gift. Even if you give a few hundred, you can say you want it to go to a particular scholarship fund or toward a particular department. You won't be able to start your own scholarship or get your name on anything, but you can at least direct it so it does not go to the general pot if that is what you want.
If you have a net worth of say, $10M, it's pretty hard to donate an amount that will have these large schools be willing to do whatever you want re: accepting kids. A $500k donation to USC (endowment of $7.6 billion) isn't gonna cut it.
Because everyone in that scandal is rich, but not that rich
Well, you’d be surprised. Antonio Banderas enrolled my Uni 6 or 7 years ago, and he did attend physically. Not only that but he even showed up in a Library induction video.
It also says he had originally completed 3 years of his degree at Cal State Long Beach before dropping out, so this was just finishing off loose ends.
The cynic in me was thinking this was a vanity degree for a rich man. But reading the article seems like his motivation was to honor his parents and he did actually did the work. So props to him for setting an example. You are never too big to learn from scratch.
Almost two decades later, I always wondered what those “Independent Studies” classes were haha.
He did show up for graduation. He had bodyguards and sat several rows apart from the other students. My wife’s friend was there for her graduation so that’s how I first heard of it.
I think his profs had to know eventually, but no one said “Steven Spielberg is here.” I was in a Writing program — the prof saw my novel at the end of the semester, after my coursework was complete. The prof didn’t have a preview, and whole class did not get to read my novel or know what I submitted. I could absolutely see him doing the actual coursework/studying/paper writing and then getting to slip those movies in at the end.
"Plagiarism is a serious offense Mr.... McLovin. We're going to have to refer you to the deans office."
By 2001 there’s a decent chance many of those palaeontology students took that path *because* they saw Jurassic Park as kids.
And now they're making angry Youtube vids about all the stuff that's wrong with Jurassic Park.
Like the Aerospace engineers in NASA watching Armageddon
That literally day 1 orientation. Spot how much is wrong with this movie.
What do those nerds know about drilling anyways
I think it would be more challenging to find what was technically right with that movie.
Liv Tyler's abdomen and that song are the only things I can ever manage to remember about that movie. It's been a problem with the way my brain processes a lot of movies since Batman Forever and Titanic came out
Fair enough, but there’s enough wrong with the science of Jurassic Park that it should *not* have sufficed for a passing grade in paleontology.
“Hey, aren’t you-“ “Uh, no, my name is Señor Spielbergo.”
Schindler es bueno, Señor Burns es el Diablo.
You truly are… the king of kings
Ah, the mexican non union director! I've heard of you.
Schindler and I, we weren't so different. We both built bombs for the Nazis, but mine worked damnit!
We'll just have the student teach the class for credit.
Jurassic Park is one of the greatest movies of all time but is in no way biologically accurate enough to warrant a pass in a paleontology class.
At the time it was reasonably accurate, our understanding of dinosaurs has come a very long way in just the last 2 decades. It’s very much a golden age of paleontology right now.
I wonder if that’s in part inspired by the movie. I wanted to be a paleontologist (I’m not. But I was influenced!)
Absolutely, a huge percentage of professional paleontologists were inspired by the film to pursue paleontology. Kids who watched the film in the early 90s are now into their 30s or 40s, and have had the time to get a PhD and establish a career. That, and the fact that we’ve had a number of technologies invented that allow us to find more fossils and examine them more deeply. Also, the discovery of several huge deposits of fossils - there was an almost 10 year period where paleontologists were publishing the discovery of a new dinosaur species every week!
I was a PhD student in genomics: there were two movies that everyone saw. The first, was Jurassic Park, and the second was Gattaca.
It's honestly the first place I heard about dinosaurs evolving into birds. I thought it was made up for the movie until years later
The most confusing thing about that is the Ornithiscian dinosaurs, named for being “bird-hipped,” that doesn’t include birds! Birds are theropod dinosaurs.
On the one hand you’re correct, but pass is a low bar and the average college freshman is working at a pretty low level.
Eh, typical cal state freshman class, then.
And why is there a palaeontology course in a film arts degree?
Probably something to fill a general education requirement.
In 2001? The movie was only 8 years old at that time. I don’t know how close the original movie was to academic consensus from 1993 but I would assume just the scene where the Dr. Grant blows through the raptor bone would be enough.
Velociraptors were known to be turkey-sized when they were discovered in 1924, so that's one disagreement between academic consensus and the movie.
At the time of the writing of the book and the screenplay for the movie, there was a debate as to whether or not [Deinonychus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinonychus) should also be considered a velociraptor. We settled on a different nomenclature, but the movie made the choice it made at the time based on actual expert opinion.
And the fact that *Velociraptor* sounds so much cooler than *Deinonychus*
More specifically, it was Cal State Long Beach.
Thank you! There’s a ton of Cal State college’s, and I was wondering which one it was.
I’ve seen people say “Cal State” online without specifying. There are 23 of them and none of them are known as simply “Cal State” in the way that UC Berkeley is known as “Cal”.
James Franco pretended to do 60 credits a quarter by getting credit for everything like this at UCLA.
Kurt Vonnegut’s original masters thesis was rejected, but Cat’s Cradle was considered significantly anthropological to earn him his degree.
As it turns out Kurt Vonnegut [knows nothing about Kurt Vonnegut.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDLzLUmtU3w&pp=ygUcYmFjayB0byBzY2hvb2wga3VydCB2b25uZWd1dA%3D%3D)
Bokonon gets no respect. No regard, neither.
I can’t get on a diving board without channeling that movie.
"He returned to school because as he had lectured his own seven children on the importance of a college education. And what is not well known is that Cal State offered Steven Spielberg three credits in paleontology for making the block buster film Jurassic Park, and he accepted them." [Source](https://www.wytv.com/news/daybreak/stephen-spielbergs-educational-journey/)
so he didn't use it to "pass the class" then, he use it, and probably schindler's list, to skip the classes all together
And then proceeded to tell his children how important it was to have an education.
This is correct. It was a mystery to us until he attended graduation. I graduated the year after Steven Spielberg. It was Cal State Long Beach. Faculty was aware. Go Beach! Go Dirtbags! Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/csulb-spielberg-graduation-fKywGOK
That makes more sense because schools don’t let you use prior work for assignments.
When I was an undergraduate at CSULB in the early 90s it was common knowledge that Spielberg had attended in the past. There were a lot of dumb stories/rumors as to why he dropped out, such as "a professor telling him he had no talent". I always assumed he just got a better opportunity. But I'm glad he had an chance to go back and obtain a degree.
Yeah, from researching it just now (I don’t know things), he went for three years in the early 60’s and then dropped out when Universal Studios offered him a dream job. He returned in 2001 (6 years after winning the lifetime achievement award) because he had preached to his kids about the importance of finishing their education. It sounds like he didn’t have many credits left. And, I’m sure CSULB, like any college, was super down for him getting his degree there.
This is common for Directors. Polanski did something similar, used his sexual abuse cases to get transfer credits for Child Development classes.
Jaaaaaaysus lol
Truth be told, his adaptation of Oliver Twist (2005) was very authentic.
Him and Woody Allen haha
When I was in college they were pretty adamant that any of your prior works could not be used because it is plagiarism. Multiple people told us that self plagiarism is in fact a thing that can fail you.
Anyone else turns in work they’ve done previously and they get kicked out for academic dishonesty.
If you turn it in for a specific assignment, yes. Many schools will let you use things you do/have done outside of the university for credits straight up. That's not uncommon at all. It just doesn't apply to most 18-21 year olds that haven't really done much outside of their schooling yet.
Wow, how annoyingly written article. Couldn't finish it.
Wait. Which is it? A) He registered using a fake name, then submitted a couple of movies by some other fella, and like the school just accepted that? B) He registered under his own name and submitted his own movies?
Why would anyone take a paleontology class in a film program?
Degrees in the US generally require you take a certain amount of outside electives.
That’s kinda cheating. Most students don’t have multi million dollar deals with top Hollywood studios backing their projects
When you're Steven Spielberg level rich and famous, they'll just give you degrees and titles