James Franco, the World's Second Best Entertainment Blogger, officially has the support of NYU, one of his 407 former colleges. The famous blogger/actor's former professor, Jose Angel Santana, filed a lawsuit against Franco last year, claiming he was defamed after giving Franco a "D" in his film studies class. As we noted at the time, the barely passing grade seemed generous considering Franco only attended 2 of the fourteen classes.

When NYU sophomore Max Wiseltier received an email from NYU's Bursar office last night about a new, electronic tuition form, he wasn't sure what to do so, naturally, he forwarded the email to his mom. "do you want me to do this?" was his exact response. There was one small problem, though; instead of hitting "Fwd" he clicked "Reply all," accidentally sending the message to all 39,979 NYU students on the list.

New York University has enclosed the atrium of the school's main academic library with randomly perforated aluminum screens, in an effort to curb suicides while completely mindfucking the NYU population, reports The New York Times' City Room.

Puff of 1920's French salon smoke James Franco is in the midst of adapting two books of poetry for two different films. Stephen Dobyns' Black Dog, Red Dog will feature Olivia Wilde, Chloe Sevigny and Whoopi Goldberg, while Tar, by the great C.K. Williams, stars Mila Kunis and Jessica Chastain alongside Franco himself. Big stars, small budgets, lots of Tisch student participation.

At around 3:17 on Wednesday morning, every student in NYU's Department of Social and Cultural Analysis received a bizarre "open letter" to NYU President John Sexton, from a student who claimed she'd been "forced" to do an ethnographic assignment on Occupy Wall Street. It was 2,800 words long, oddly typeset, and quickly followed up by another five equally eccentric emails. Someone sent us the full set of emails, which everyone at NYU—and elsewhere—was talking about. Want to read them?

José Angel Santana is suing New York University because he claims he lost his job as a professor of film studies for giving notorious class sleeper James Franco a D. It sounds like Franco deserved it.

When NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly stopped by Columbia to answer questions for a class taught by former New York Mayor David Dinkins, an Occupy Wall Street sympathizer whipped out a projector and started displaying images of police brutality. Hey, it's more fun than a Powerpoint.

In your weary Thursday media column: a fun cokey journalism blind item, Steve Jobs makes the media work, plagiarism at the Examiner, micromedia evolution, and layoffs are coming to the BBC.

We all know the economy is bad, but how bad is it? So bad that New Yorkers can't afford to shovel blow into their faces like its closing night at Studio 54. Damn, that's really bad. But is it true?

Looks like our little Dakota Fanning is making good on her plans to attend New York University, almost mater of the Olsens and James Franco's West Village sleep-n-study center. Good for her!

Olivia Pepper, "Student, NYU," has written a charming little ditty for the Huffington Post entitled "Why I'm Not Working This Summer." It starts with the most ominous opening sentence in the history of oblivious first person essays:

What do you do when a video of yourself acting like a huge jerk on a Metro-North train becomes the toast of the internet? Why, you hire a public relations firm, of course!

James Franco may be off Twitter, but that's not going to keep other users from painstakingly documenting his every move. A user snapped this picture of Franco graduating from NYU's film school today. Apparently, his cock-and-piss-filled thesis film didn't turn off too many of his teachers.

A French academic living in Israel is suing two men for libel because they trashed her book, The Trial Proceedings of the International Criminal Court, in a review. Is saying something sucked libelous, or even criminal?

According to stats compiled by the New York Post, there were 121 disciplinary drug busts at uptown nerdfest Columbia last year, compared to 610 at artfag haven NYU. Do NYU kids do more drugs? Possibly. Or, security are just dicks.

The cast of the College Podcast "Student Loans For Beer Money" decide to poke fun at the typical students that attend New York University. Is it accurate? We'll let you be the judge of that!

NYU's Tisch School has named Ruff Ryders producer (and Alicia Keys' husband) Swizz Beatz as its "Producer in Residence" for the coming school year. That high tuition buys something at last, kids! He's no DJ Premier, but. Baby steps.

Does this sound familiar? "Respectable" young man who was selling weed out of his pricey apartment gets shot and robbed by weed customers; media coverage ensues. It should—it's happened again. An appropriate celebration for the defeat of weed legalization.

With the Tyler Clementi suicide at Rutgers and the recent spate of gay teen suicides in the news, many people are wondering what colleges are safe for gay teens. Here's a guide to 10 of the best.

NYU spent four years and $120 million to tear up Mercer Street and install its new, eco-friendly subterranean power plant. Too bad it's currently on fire.