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| Coming soon to Carleton: Not Emma Watson |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Friday, October 3, 2008 9:50 pm
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NORTHFIELD — It happens every time a Hollywood starlet or a well-known musician turns 18. In an off-hand conversation, someone casually lets slip that they heard [insert celebrity’s name here] is planning on attending [insert name of college here].
And then the rumor mill goes into overdrive.
This time, Carleton College has found itself at the center of a veritable storm of gossip. The subject: whether or not Emma Watson, the well-known actress who plays Harry Potter’s counterpart, Hermione Granger, in the Harry Potter films, is planning on attending class at the college.
“I have heard this rumor for two years now, it’s not a new thing,” said Meg Otten, the associate dean of admissions at Carleton. “It kept happening and happening and happening.”
So much so that Otten, who normally does not give out information about applicants at the school, felt compelled to publicly dispel the swirl of scuttlebutt.
“I can say, on the record, that this is a rumor,” Otten said. “She has not been an applicant up to this point. If she applies tomorrow, OK, but I don’t think she’s going to.”
Otten is not sure how the rumor began, although she says that a Carleton student once confessed to her that his roommate initiated the gossip. Whatever the source, the rumor has grown to epic proportion online; popular Web sites like WikiAnswers, and Answers.com have entries dedicated to the rumor, not to mention the innumerable blogs that have commented on the story.
The September announcement from the 18-year-old Harry Potter star that she’s considering several liberal arts programs in the United States has done nothing to extinguish the rumors, either.
Carleton isn’t alone in this trend. Michael Kyle, the vice president and dean of enrollment at St. Olaf College, says that St. Olaf has repeatedly found itself the subject of such rumors. Most recently, Kyle said, a member of the Backstreet Boys was rumored to be attending the school.
Kyle blames the proliferation of these rumors on networking Web sites like Facebook and Myspace.
“One student hears it and it takes on a life of its own,” Kyle said. “Now, the electronic age certainly speeds up the rumors. It’s not that there are any more or any fewer rumors, or that they are any more true, or any less true, but that they are spread with much greater efficiency.”
While Otten believes the rumors are generally harmless, she sympathizes with the celebrities who find themselves the subject of such intense speculation.
“It’s kind of fun, and it certainly reflects how completely obsessed we are as a society with celebrities,” Otten said. “But given the way were are as a society, you feel for these people — they can’t go out to eat, they can’t go to the grocery store, they can’t go to college without all this attention.”
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100. |
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