The New York Times featured James Franco’s GRD ’16 career as a student in Friday’s paper. The article explained:

Yale has had its share of screen-star students, including Jodie Foster and Claire Danes, who have walked a delicate line between visibility and aloofness. But by all accounts, Mr. Franco, 32, who arrived last fall as a full-time student in Yale’s Ph.D. program in English, has straddled the line like no one else — at once the retiring scholar and the focus of attention.

The article listed Franco’s various commitments and on his efforts to maintain a low profile, despite his highly public Twitter and a student-led blog “James Franco Has Fun” which satirically obsesses over all things Franco.

And, alas, we learn his life is not like ours. The article ends with English Department Chair Michael Warner recounting the time he met with Franco aboard Metro-North to discuss a paper.