FOLIO LINE FOLIO LINE M c C l a t c h y - Tr i b u n e

BY GREGORY CLAY
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

We know the
stunning Natalie
Portman of “Black
Swan” fame won
the 2011 Academy
Award for Best
Actress. And we
know she wore a
striking, off-the-
shoulder bur-
gundy-violet Natalie Portman MCT

gown by
Rodarte — with a baby bump and all —
during the preeminent awards show.
But the Israeli-born actress got an
early start in life in the achievement
category. Portman’s straight–A
honor roll record since elementary
school helped propel her to the Ivy
League: Harvard University, where
she earned a degree in psychology
in 2003. Yes, it’s all academic.
MCT Then there’s the co-host of this
year’s Oscar ceremony, James Franco.
Though he received mixed reviews for his
performance at the Kodak Theatre, the
same can not be said of his academic per-
formance as he is working toward a Ph.D.
1. Which of the follow- 4. Which Grammy 6. Which late-night talk 9. Which actress is in a in English at Yale University.
ing is an Academy Award- Award-winning recording show host graduated from league of her own when it Portman, one of People magazine’s
winning actress who gradu- artist attended an Ivy Harvard University? comes to high performanc- “50 Most Beautiful People,” and Best
ated from college magna League university and once A. David Letterman es on IQ tests and musical
cum laude and also was delivered a college com- instruments?
Actor nominee Franco aren’t the only
B. Jimmy Fallon
valedictorian of her high mencement speech focus- C. Conan O’Brien A. Geena Davis entertainers who have found a success-
school class? ing on the “politics of D. Craig Ferguson B. Ann Cusack ful niche in the academic, literary or
A. Marcia Gay Harden empathy”? C. Rosie O’Donnell technical world.
B. Melissa Leo
C. Gwyneth Paltrow
A. Tom Morello
B. Art Garfunkel
7. Which Golden Globe- D. Lori Petty For instance, the hit sitcom “The Big
winning actress has both Bang Theory” is adding real-life braini-
D. Jodie Foster C. John Legend bachelor’s and master’s 10. Name the star of
acs to the show’s cast of geeks, such as
D. Huey Lewis degrees and once worked the television series “Star
2. This acclaimed for U.S. News and World Trek: Deep Space Nine” “Blossom’s” Mayim Hoya Bialik, a neu-
television actor was a 5. Pop/hip-hop singer Report magazine? who now serves as a pro- roscientist, and “The Wonder Years’”
classmate of President Mike Posner, below, earned A. Sharon Stone fessor of theater at Rutgers
University in New Jersey.
Danica McKellar, a mathematician.
Barack Obama’s at degrees in ... B. Angela Bassett
Harvard University. A. Business and English A. Rene Auberjonois Actor James Woods received a full
C. Annette Bening
He also has been named B. Business and D. Meryl Streep B. Michael Dorn scholarship to MIT (though he stopped
one of People magazine’s sociology C. Colm Meaney just short of graduation).
sexiest men alive.
Name him.
C. Sociology and
political science
8. Name this “Blond D. Avery Brooks London-born actress Kate
Bombshell “ from the Beckinsale studied
A. Hill Harper D. English and 1950s and 1960s: She 11. What popular jazz Russian and French litera-
B. Tommy Lee Jones psychology reportedly spoke five lan- musician earned a bachelor’s
C. Matt Damon guages; was a classically degree in accounting from a ture at prestigious Oxford
D. John Lithgow trained violinist and major West Coast university? University. Aisha Tyler,
pianist; was a Playboy A. Kenny G from television’s “Friends”
MCT

3. Which Academy Playmate of the Month;

and had a very high IQ
B. Wynton Marsalis Aisha Tyler
and “Ghost Whisperer,”
Award-winning director C. Kevin Eubanks
(reportedly anywhere went Ivy on us, too, majoring in political
wrote actress Claire Danes D. George Benson
(of “My So-Called Life” between 149 and 163), science at Dartmouth, with a minor in
fame) a letter of recom- though she once was quot-
ed as saying of her “secret”
12. Which child actress environmental policy. She’s also fluent in
mendation that helped her co-wrote a math paper for Russian, French and Swahili. Actress
get accepted into Yale intelligence, “They’re more the British-based “Journal
University? interested in 40-21-35.” of Physics”?
Gabrielle Union (“City of Angels”),
A. Martin Scorsese A. Mamie Van Doren A. Christina Applegate whose first interests were law, soccer
SONY MUSIC

B. Oliver Stone B. Marilyn Monroe B. Raven-Symoné and basketball before acting, graduated
C. Francis Ford Coppola C. Betty Grable C. Danica McKellar with honors in sociology from UCLA.
D. Steven Spielberg D. Jayne Mansfield D. Lindsay Lohan And they aren’t they only ones.

2002. Stone, who attended Yale 6. C — Conan O’Brien grad- of MENSA, the exclusive high- “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” is
before dropping out to join the uated from Harvard with a bach- IQ society. The 6-foot Davis, the first black person to earn a
Army and fight in the Vietnam elor’s degree in American history who won an Academy Award for master of fine arts degree in act-
1. D — Jodie Foster, who War, later graduated from film and literature in 1985. The 6- “The Accidental Tourist” (1988), ing and directing at Rutgers.
speaks French, Italian, German school at New York University. foot-4 O’Brien, who plays the also plays the organ, drums, 11. A — Kenny G (the “G” is
and English, graduated from guitar, also was president of the piano and flute.
4. C — John Legend, who for Gorelick), the Grammy
Lycee Francais de Los Angeles, Harvard Lampoon, the school’s
earned a degree in English from 10. D — Avery Brooks Award-winning jazz saxophonist,
a French-language prep school. humor magazine.
the University of Pennsylvania, (Hawk from TV’s “Spenser: For graduated magna cum laude in
Foster, of “Silence of the 7. B — Angela Bassett earned
delivered the commencement Hire) is a professor of theater at accounting from the University of
Lambs” and “The Accused” a B.A. degree in African-
address at Penn in 2009, saying, the Mason Gross School of the Washington. Kenny G, who got
fame, earned a literature degree American studies at Yale, while
in part, “. . . we develop a sense Arts at Rutgers. Brooks, who his professional start playing in
from Yale in 1985. on academic scholarship. Bassett,
of empathy, when we become also played Captain Sisko on Barry White’s Love Unlimited
2. A — Hill Harper, most listeners, when we become wit- who later received an M.A. Orchestra at age 17, is the top-
known for playing the role of nesses to the truth, it requires degree in fine arts from the Yale selling instrumental musician of
forensic pathologist Dr. Sheldon that we turn down some of the School of Drama, worked in the this era.
Hawkes on “CSI:NY,” earned a noise and clutter of our daily photo research department at 12. C — Danica McKellar,
B.A. degree from Brown lives and stop to think about the “U.S. News and World Report” who played Winnie Cooper,
University before receiving his way others live.” before becoming a career actress. received a degree in mathematics
law degree from Harvard, where 5. B — Mike Posner, 23, was 8. D — Jayne Mansfield stud- from UCLA in 1998. McKellar, a
he met Barack Obama. Harper writing a term paper in the library ied drama and the performing mathematics advocate, co-wrote a
also has a master’s degree in at Duke University when he arts early on at various colleges, math paper for the British-based
public administration from the received an e-mail from rapper- including the University of “Journal of Physics,” and has writ-
Kennedy School of Government mogul Jay-Z’s recording label. Dallas, Texas, UCLA and SMU. ten books titled “Math Doesn’t
at Harvard. Posner, who eventually earned Mansfield died in a car crash in Suck: How to Survive Middle-
3. B — Oliver Stone wrote degrees in sociology and business 1967 at age 34. School Math without Losing Your
Claire Danes’ letter of recommen- from Duke, is best known for his 9. A — Geena Davis, a grad- Mind or Breaking a Nail” and
dation for Yale, where she com- songs “Please Don’t Go” and uate of Boston University who is M AT H D O E S N T S U C K . C O M
“Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-
pleted two years before leaving in “Cooler Than Me.” fluent in Swedish, is a member Danica McKellar Algebra Who’s Boss.”

S O U R C E S : I M D B . C O M , H I P - H O P A N D TO P H I T S L I S T D I G I TA L C A B L E M U S I C C H A N N E L S , E ! N E T W O R K , C N N , M S N B C, F OX N E W S C H A N N E L

SMART CELEBRITIES
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE