GASTON — The Georgetown University Lecture Fund added yet another name to its list of distinguished speakers with the appearance of James Grant at the podium of Gaston Hall last Thursday.
“Today’s speaker truly needs no introduction,” University President John DeGioia said in his opening remarks at the event before passing the microphone to the famed background star of the Hollywood blockbuster “Paul Blart 2: It’s a Mall Out There.”
James Grant’s Facebook profile picture: he can be seen on the far right.
After 26 minutes of standing ovation, cheers, and various flora thrown before his feet, Mr. Grant, 56, began his speech by explaining how he was inspired to make a part-time career in walking behind C-List celebrities his life goal.
“As a child, I would always walk around in the distance when my mother took me to the park, trying to emulate the classic stars like Griswald McManus, who was once featured in a scene in ‘The Maltese Falcon’ standing next to Humphrey Bogart for 6 seconds while awaiting a taxi.”
Mr. Grant went on to thrill the audience with a recent on-set story of silently riding an elevator with Kevin James while filming the long-anticipated sequel to the original Paul Blart film, which the Associated Press deemed “The standard to which all future retail security based films will be held”. Mr. Grant was not able to appear in the original due to a conflict with auditions for a part in the background of an Icy-Hot commercial, in which he was not cast due to what Mr. Grant put as a “difference in opinion with the producer in regards to artistic direction.”
The event concluded with a PowerPoint presentation in which Grant proudly displayed his page on IMDb, which includes two other film credits from 1979.
“I have to admit I was surprised that he had a thick Scottish accent, since I had never heard him talk before” said Ashley Wright (SFS ’17) who skipped 2 classes to get in line forming around Healy Hall at 6:30 am, “but he had me in stitches laughing at his story about blackmailing the IMDb webmaster to put his page up.”
As a result of the event’s huge success, the Lecture Fund has already allocated about three quarters of their budget to invite Mr. Grant back next year, and the University Administration has announced its intention to bequeath him with an honorary degree in the dramatic arts.
