Streep, Kudrow and other big names on campus

America’s fixation on celebrity has worked its way into academia.

While adding thousands of college records to the Muckety database recently, we couldn’t help but notice several star-studded boards.

One of the most blinding is at Vassar, where trustees include Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow, who are both alumnae and (despite Phoebe’s ditziness) brainiacs.

The University of Southern California boasts Stephen Spielberg; Bennett College for Women has poet and Oprah pal Maya Angelou; and Gallaudet University has actress Marlee Matlin.

Literati are also popular.

Playwright Marsha Norman sits on the Agnes Scott College board, while lawyer-novelist Scott Turow is a trustee at Amherst. Anna Quindlen, the novelist and former New York Times columnist who is an ever-popular commencement speaker, chairs the board at her alma mater, Barnard.

Quindlen isn’t the only media celeb to serve on a college board. NPR talk show host Diane Rehm is a trustee of McDaniel College. Sherry Lansing, former Paramount Pictures chief, is both University of California regent and a University of Chicago trustee.

No telling if the stars show up for monthly meetings, but they undoubtedly draw crowds and money to their favorite universities.

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