This shot of James Franco snoozing through class has been making its way around the Interweb. While Columbia freshman have been losing sleep and getting giddy from the thrill of walking around Morningside Heights with Spiderman's best friend, it looks like the MFA pursuit has been pretty breezy so far. After all, just a week ago, press releases announced that Franco's first book, a collection of short stories, would be published by Schribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

In other Franco-Columbia news, further details from last year's rumors of James starring as a young Allen Ginsberg in the biopic "Howl" have been confirmed. Last year, the New York Observer reported on the role and also Franco following in Ginsberg's footsteps at Columbia:

According to Hollywood Reporter, the film will focus on the obscenity trial surrounding the 1957 American publication of Ginsberg's most famous poem, "Howl."

Hopefully Mr. Franco will not go overboard in his attempts to mimic Ginsberg: if he goes too far he might end up getting kicked out of Columbia, where he enrolled in an MFA program this fall.

Since Franco enrolled in classes at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia last fall, it's been a waiting game for him to do something special. The book deal is OK, falling asleep is boring, but interacting with the freshman cats-in-heat would be downright grand. (Obscenity now!) Keep your cell phone cameras ready for his next move.

James Franco, of Spider-Man and Pineapple Express fame, is now a student at Columbia's School of Arts, where he is pursuing a pricey MFA in writing. News of this has traveled fast, especially around Morningside Heights. It seems like many Columbians have been desperate to catch the star's attention whenever he makes a public appearance. Gawker, via the Commentariat, reports that recently, while studying in a campus coffee shop, a crowd had formed around him like "cats in heat":

About 20 minutes later, people start hoarding around the entrance of the cafe, and by 11:50PM, most Columbians, particularly the type of ridiculous, squealing, freshman girl are all harassing the poor guy. At first, he would try not to respond. This made things quite awkward since the gawkers were shameless enough to literally go right up to him in desperate attempts to get his attention. Ha! He thought his headphones had the power to transport him into another world where he could be a student in peace."

Granted, on the one hand these stalkers should give the poor man some space, but on the other hand Franco should have given more thought to studying in a place as noisy and public as a coffee shop! Someone direct him to one of the quiet wings of Butler ASAP. There will still be students staring at him from across the room but at least in theory they'll be quiet. If they aren't he can at least sic the librarians on the worst offenders. On another note, one must wonder what Franco is trying to get out of Columbia to begin with. The Ivy League cachet? Starving artist cred? A sweet book deal with an advance that pays .000001% of the money he makes off a typical blockbuster? Who knows, but good luck!