Archive | October, 2009

DePaul senior walks in on Ben Stiller and cast of “Little Fockers”

DePaul senior Sarah Musur did not need to rush to Grant Park to catch a glimpse of Ben Stiller working on “Little Fockers,” the newest movie in the “Meet the Parents” series, as it filmed in various Chicago locations earlier this month. Instead, she came home to her apartment on Tuesday, Oct. 5 to find Stiller sitting on her couch.

“I came straight from nannying and I did not expect to meet him,” said Musur. “I had on sweat pants and a sweat shirt and I looked a mess and I met Ben Stiller!”

Though Stiller’s presence in her living room at that moment was a surprise to Musur, she had known since the summer that her apartment building would be one of the filming locations for “Little Fockers.”

During July, the location manager for the movie drove all around Chicago, reading the script and trying to find a place that matched the description of Stiller’s apartment. He loved how Musur’s apartment looked from the outside and one day a crowd of people with cameras gathered outside her place. Musur and her 2 roommates asked why they were there, and they simply said they were scouting locations for the movie “Little Fockers.” After contacting the condo association and getting the greenlight from her landlord, the crew secured Musur’s home as a filming location for the movie.

Although she lives on the first floor and in the movie Stiller is supposed to live on the third floor, her apartment became “the hangout space” on set, according to Musur.

Stiller decided he did not want to go all the way to his trailer for make-up touch ups, so they did that in her living room instead. Then, “The director started using our bathroom,” Musur said. All day long, as the cast and crew worked from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., people filtered in and out of Musur’s apartment, hard at work.

“We had to leave [the apartment] every time they started to work,” she said.

Though this seems like quite the inconvenience considering the fact that filming took place during midterms week, “Little Fockers” compensated Musur and her roommates $500 each.

In addition to the cash compensation, Musur can now brag that she got to meet Stiller and Robert De Niro.

“[Stiller] was nice, he was quiet,” Musur said. “He loved my dog!”

“De Niro didn’t interact with anyone in the crowd, he’s paranoid,” she said. “It’s understandable because he’s such a big deal.”

Musur has seen the first “Meet the Parents” movie but still has yet to see “Meet the Fockers.” She did go out to buy one of Stiller’s first-ever movies, Heavy Weights, a comedy in which Stiller is not even credited because he was not yet famous.

“I had to go out and buy the movie right away because I was like, I just hung out with him,” Musur said.

Now, Musur and her roommates must patiently wait for “Little Fockers” to premiere in July. “I really just can’t wait to see the movie and be like, ‘I live there!’” said Musur. “It’s going to be a story that I can tell forever.”

Celebrity brushes and bragging rights aside, the experience is not one that Musur is itching to relive in the future. “I had a lot of fun, but we would never do it again!” she said.

Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Movie Features, UncategorizedComments Off

Alcorn Professor Holds Webinar

On Thursday, October 29, 2009, Dr. Kimball P. Marshall, professor of Marketing, MBA Program, will hold a national Webinar sponsored by the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) of Mississippi State.

The webinar is the culmination of the grant provided to Dr. Marshall and Alcorn State U. in 2007 for the purpose of designing a curriculum and program for
encouraging people in rural areas with limited resources to become involved in Internet-based E-Commerce.

An initial presentation was made to extension workers in summer 2008 and the national meeting in Nebraska. With guidance from that audience, the final program was developed and submitted to SRDC. SRDC then enhanced the materials provided and developed the interactive materials
to be presented and explained at the webinar scheduled for October 29.

Alcorn State University is a Land Grant university with a strong commitment to both economic development and to serving rural populations in Mississippi, it is important to support efforts that encourage e-commerce among rural populations. The rural people of Mississippi have many cultural treasures and important rural life and crafts skills and talents that can be profitably shared with others outside of our region.

Basic e-commerce, whether in the form of personal web pages or participation in on-line selling sites such as E-Bay and Yahoo stores, offers opportunities for rural people, even those with limited resources, to offer their products on the national and international stage. “The more people become aware of their valuable skills and ways to profit from them, the more rural economic development is encouraged through individual entrepreneurship.

The talents and skills of our people are exciting, and the ideas that have come from this project can provide an opportunity to showcase them,” explains Dr. Marshall.

The webinar scheduled by SRDC for October 29 will be the first “roll out” of a whole series of educational programs developed by Alcorn State and
other SRDC grantees to help extension workers bring rural populations into ecommerce.

Future topics in the series that are scheduled for November and December include “Web Site Basics”, and “Marketing Specialty Food Products
Online.” More information on the webinar series can be found at http://srdc.msstate.edu/ecommerce/webinar.html.

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A Night of Enchanting Elegance

On Thursday, October 15, 2009 Alcorn celebrated its annual Homecoming Coronation.

This has been a longstanding tradition here at Alcorn State University which showcases some of its finest students based on academic merit, achievement, heavy campus involvement, and being overall positive assets to its campus and devoted servants to the student body.

The evening began a bit dreary due to the weather. However, the decorative environment, festive occasion, high spirits and positive students, alumni, and faculty helped to  transform this night into an enchanting and elegant one.

Among the participants in the coronation were: Alcorn State University Student Government Association President, Mr. Ryan Martin, Miss Alcorn State University, Miss Jessica L. Hinton, Miss Senior, Victoria Brinkley, SGA Vice President Donovan Booth, Miss Junior and Junior Class President Sheryl Carpenter and Justin Mathis, Miss Sophomore, Candace Felder, SGA 2nd Vice President Kevin Spencer, and Freshmen Class President Mr. Marcus Mercy who served as escort to Miss Freshman Megan Henderson. This select few that are voted into their respective positions by their peers make up the “Royal Court.”

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