TULANE TALK

January 21, 2011

Good Morning:

What do Miley Cyrus, Valerie Plame, Joseph Wilson and Deborah Bial have in common? This isn’t a question from Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” series. The answer is all four are making appearances at Tulane University this month.

Miley is filming the movie “So Undercover,” in which she plays an FBI agent who goes undercover as a college student to protect the potential target of a mob hit. I happened upon a scene being shot on campus this weekend. Accompanied by the photogenic Gibson, I was hoping to get cast as an extra. But the only direction I got was to move out of the shot.

Tuesday, Jan. 25, offers a doubleheader of engaging speakers on campus. Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson will discuss “The Politics of Truth: Inside the Valerie Plame/CIA Leak Controversy” at 7 p.m. in McAlister Auditorium. At the same time Deborah Bial, founder of the Posse Foundation, which recruits and trains urban public high school students and sends them to the country’s top universities, including Tulane, will speak at Freeman Auditorium in the Woldenberg Art Center.

Both talks are free and open to the public. I have yet to decide which one to attend. Such are the choices one faces at a university that consistently attracts such diverse and in-demand scholars and personalities.

Finally, as promised, I will now report on the progress of my goal to lose 15 pounds by September 1, 2011. The good news is I did not gain any weight over the holidays. The other news is that I only lost six-tenths of a pound. I need to walk with Gibson more often. My next weight report will show more progress.

Have a great weekend,