Brown University in popular culture

Brown University, founded in 1764, is a private, Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island.[1] Widely known for its prestige and for its Open Curriculum, Brown is consistently referenced in popular culture.[2]

Faculty

Josiah Carberry – Professor of Psychoceramics (the study of cracked pots), who was created as a joke in 1929 and who has become a tradition at Brown. On every Friday the 13th, cracked pots are left around the Brown campus for students to deposit their pocket change. The money goes to support the Brown University library. Traditionally, Brown alums everywhere send their pocket change to the library on Friday the 13th. There is an organization of alums called "Friends of Josiah" that meets for dinner on the Brown campus on Friday the 13th.[3]

Literature

  • George Gammell Angell, great-uncle of the narrator of HP Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu, professor of Semitic Languages at Brown University.
  • Eric van der Woodsen – in the book series Gossip Girl written by Cecily von Ziegesar, Eric is a student at Brown University.

Film and Television

  • Sean Alvarez (played by Andre DaSilva), honest stock broker and murder victim on Law & Order, 2000 episode "Trade This" (season 11),[4] produced by Jeffrey L. Hayes, Brown '66.
  • Sabrina Anderson / Sabrina Jordan (played by Spencer Locke) – young woman held hostage during a robbery who, as a result, must enter witness protection and will not be able to go to Brown where her old friends will recognize her, on In Plain Sight – 2010 (season 3) episode "WitSec Stepmother"[5]
  • Sam Arsenault (played by James Naughton, Brown '67) – guest villain on Damages (2006–7). In one episode, he sings Danny Boy at a cocktail party, telling the guests he sang it with the Jabberwocks when he was an undergraduate student at Brown. Jim was, in fact, a member of the Jabberwocks when he was an undergraduate at Brown.
  • Ann August (played by Natalie Portman) – central character in Anywhere but Here; daughter of Adele August (played by Susan Sarandon). Ann applies and is accepted to Brown, much to her mother's dismay over the distance.[6]
  • In BoJack Horseman season 2, film director Kelsey Jannings is quoted as saying, of her daughter Irving: “Indie darling daughters don’t go to Brown, okay? They end up at cute, little pat-on-the-back factories like Vassar, and then they move back in with their indie darling mothers and make weird puppet shows with their tampons and get a profile in New York Magazine, and the horrible cycle continues.”[7]
  • Laura Donnellon (played by Tracy Lynn Middendorf) – guest drug addict who drops out of Brown on The Guardian, episode Hazel Park, in 2003
  • Lucy Kelson (played by Sandra Bullock) – protagonist of Two Weeks Notice is a liberal lawyer who specializes in environmental law in New York City and is hired by an immature billionaire who needs a Chief Counsel who not only will file briefs but help with every little aspect of his life. She and Meryl Brooks (played by Heather Burns) have known each other since "Brownie days."[13]
  • Jonathan "Mox" Moxon (played by James Van Der Beek) – main character of the film Varsity Blues; this tormented replacement quarterback for his small-town Texas high school football team must devote himself to football and become a hero; receives acceptance to Brown, but his coach blackmails him to play football by threatening to ruin his transcript
  • Julianne Potter (played by Julia Roberts) – main character of the film My Best Friend's Wedding and her "best friend" Michael O'Neal (played by Dermot Mulroney), who met and made their marriage pact while attending Brown
  • Elliot Reid in the television series Scrubs; revealed in the episode "My Turf War" that she and her sorority sister Melody O'Hara attended Brown
  • Ryder Smith (played by George Hamilton) – leading man in Where the Boys Are a 1960 movie about spring break in Ft Lauderdale, shown during exam week on the Brown campus.
  • Seth Cohen (played by Adam Brody) and his girlfriend Summer Roberts (played by Rachel Bilson) – in the television series The O.C. both applied to Brown and had interviews with the admissions officer from Brown. In a few episodes, both were seen competing to gain more extracurricular activities to add to their C.V. hopefully to increase their chances to Brown. Ultimately however, Seth was rejected and Summer was accepted. Summer enrolls but is suspended for one year following her first semester after she freed rabbits in a science laboratory, and fellow student Winchester "Che" Cook (Chris Pratt) falsely accused her of other acts. Summer eventually returned to Brown and graduated.[17]
  • Linda (played by Marisa Tomei) and Andrew (played by Allen Covert) are Brown alums in the movie Anger Management. Linda is Adam Sandler's girlfriend, and Andrew has been Linda's best friend since they dated at Brown. Andrew emasculates Sandler by forcing him to admit that he attended Trenton Community College, asking "where did you go to school again?" In another scene, Andrew tells Linda that "I rented out the entire sports bar. I thought it would be fun if it was just us Brown alums." He also tries to drum up their old romance by saying, "Do you remember back at Brown when we went up to see the Red Sox game?" In the movie, Sandler describes a Red Sox bra as "represent[ing] everything that I hate." Jack Nicholson, whose character went to Columbia University, reinforces the New York v. New England/Brown motif when he tells Sandler "Andrew is gonna try and recreate those hotsy-totsy nights up at Brown U."
  • Marina Thwaite, Danielle Minkoff and Julian Clarke, characters from Claire Messud's 2006 novel The Emperor's Children, were all friends at Brown University.
  • Christine Everhart (played by Leslie Bibb), 2008 Iron Man film: a Vanity Fair columnist who questions and interrogates Stark about his weapons industry, claiming that his company is killing people. Stark asks if she attended Berkeley, but she corrects him and says "Brown, actually." Later, she appears again, to tell Stark of the Ten Rings in Gulmira and at the end, suspecting Stark of being Iron Man.
  • In Hamlet 2, the main character, a drama teacher assumes a Latino student is a gangster. In actuality, his father is an accomplished author and he gained early admission to Brown.
  • Nell Kellner (played by Tricia Vessey) – in the movie Coming Soon, Nell gets accepted to Brown University at the end of the film when she reveals that her father had donated a large sum of money to the school.
  • Donna Keppel (played by Brittany Snow) – protagonist of the movie Prom Night was accepted to Brown, but has doubts of going because of being separated from her boyfriend.
  • Courtney, April and Monica – in the movie Ninja Cheerleaders, Courtney (played by Trishelle Cannatella), April (played by Ginny Weirick) and Monica (played by Maitland McConnell) get accepted to Brown and attend the school at the end of the film.
  • Jane Weston (played by Amy Smart) – in the movie Outside Providence, Jane gets accepted to Brown University and attends the school at the end of the film.
  • Nick Lipton (played by Zach Braff, making his feature film debut) in the movie Manhattan Murder Mystery, is the son of protagonists Larry Lipton (played by Woody Allen) and Carol Lipton (played by Diane Keaton), and makes a brief appearance when he visits his parents over a college break.
  • Sophie Hall (played by Amanda Seyfried) – in the movie Letters to Juliet, Sophie tells Charlie Wyman, played by Chris Egan, that she went to Brown and she double majored with a minor in Latin (Brown does not offer minors, only concentrations).
  • Turanga Munda, the mother of the character Turanga Leela in Futurama, has a degree in exolinguistics from Brown[18] In the episode Zapp Dingbat, it was stated that Leela's father Morris also attended the University.
  • In The Skinny, four Black gay males meet up again in New York City. All are graduates of Brown University. The film was directed by Patrick-Ian Polk.[19]

References

  1. ↑ Amanda Katzaug, "In Providence", New York Times, August 22, 2014. Accessed April 29, 2018.
  2. ↑ Shapira, Ian (9 February 1998). "Vanity Fair names Brown most elite, explores stereotypes of Ivy League". Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Rob Lammale, "The Legend of Professor Josiah S. Carberry", Mental Floss, May 15, 2015. Accessed July 27, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Law & Order" Trade This (2000) – Full cast and crew
  5. ↑ "In Plain Sight" WitSec Stepmother (TV episode 2010) – IMDb
  6. ↑ Stephen Hunter,"'Anywhere but Here': Plain Truths That Hit Home,'", Washington Post, November 12, 1999. Accessed July 27, 2017. "Ann's job is to be her mom's best friend. Ann, of course, wants to be anywhere but here, and that would be Brown University."
  7. ↑ "'BoJack Horseman' Recap, Episode 205: To Run Afowl". Decider. 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  8. ↑ "The West Wing" H. Con-172 (TV episode 2002) – IMDb
  9. ↑ Ryan Cruise, "Alums who do cool things: Clipford “Clippy” Robinson ’94, Microsoft Office Assistant", The Brown Daily Herald, March 10, 2015. Accessed July 27, 2017
  10. ↑ Emily Jones, "Brown's Most Notable Fictional Alumni", Providence Monthly, February 25, 2014. Accessed July 27, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Brian Goes Back to College". BBC Programmes. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  12. ↑ Will Dean,"https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2009/apr/22/mad-men-series-two-jet-set", The Guardian, April 22, 2009. Accessed July 27 2017. "Pembroke dropout Joy is reading The Sound and the Fury. It's "just OK", apparently. It won't be when she discovers the last page is ripped out. Who does that? Honestly."
  13. ↑ Emily Jones, "Brown's Most Notable Fictional Alumni", Providence Monthly, February 25, 2014. Accessed July 27, 2017.
  14. ↑ Eliza Lane, "Brown alums pay homage to alma mater on the big screen", Brown Daily Herald, February 28, 2005. Accessed July 27, 2017. "An extensive list of TV shows feature alleged alums, including “The Simpsons,” in which burnt-out bus driver Otto Mann is an alum...."
  15. ↑ Eliza Lane, "Brown alums pay homage to alma mater on the big screen", Brown Daily Herald, February 28, 2005. Accessed July 27, 2017. "An extensive list of TV shows feature alleged alums, including “The Simpsons,” in which burnt-out bus driver Otto Mann is an alum; “Will & Grace,” in which the title characters met during their time together at Brown; and “24,” the dramatic action series featuring a character who, according to the show’s official website, allegedly received a master of arts degree – with a specialization in public policy – from Brown."
  16. ↑ Eliza Lane, "Brown alums pay homage to alma mater on the big screen", Brown Daily Herald, February 28, 2005. Accessed July 27, 2017. "An extensive list of TV shows feature alleged alums, including “The Simpsons,” in which burnt-out bus driver Otto Mann is an alum; “Will & Grace,” in which the title characters met during their time together at Brown...."
  17. ↑ Emily Jones, "Brown's Most Notable Fictional Alumni", Providence Monthly, February 25, 2014. Accessed July 27, 2017.
  18. ↑ Cohen, David X (2003). Futurama season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Leela's Homeworld" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  19. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2107835/
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