James Franco's academic aspirations have taken a hit - an official at America's prestigious Yale University has denied the actor is set to teach at the school next year (11).
The Spider-Man star will begin studying at the Connecticut-based college in September (10) to obtain a doctorate in English and film studies.
He announced last week (begs19Jul10) that he would be taking on an extra workload as a teacher in his own "very special class" at the facility, saying, "I am going to teach at Yale. It's in the works. I have a very special class I will be teaching next January."
But Yale's English Department Chair Michael Warner has countered the claim, suggesting Franco spoke too soon - because his teaching request has been turned down.
Clarifying the confusion in an email to the Yale Daily News, Warner writes, "As a grad student in our programme, he would not ordinarily teach until his third year. (Franco) was referring to another project: a proposal for a college seminar that did not work out for this year."
However, Franco will have another venture to keep him busy - he will be staging a musical with undergraduates next spring (11), with help from fellow students Ari Berkowitz and Matthew George.
Describing the project as a "stage/film/musical/crazy production," Franco says, "(This) will not be a regular student production that will run for four shows. We have a bunch of funding and aim to make this a large project."
The actor has previously studied filmmaking at New York University and earned a master of fine arts diploma from Columbia.