Attending the best public school in the world (yes, the WORLD) comes with a handful of perks. We get to rep our Cal gear anywhere and everywhere and it’s totally acceptable. We are privileged to learn from some of the most elite minds in academia. We find abbreviations for everything and can jaywalk where ever we go. On top of it all, we’re often referenced in TV shows and movies as a representation of the intellectually superior. Remember Dave Franco’s character in 21 Jump Street? Minus the part where he went to jail, he was characterized as the high acheiving brainiac who “got into Berkeley, early admish.” Or, maybe you’ll remember Leonardo DiCaprio (swoon) mention he got his fictional PhD at Berkeley in Catch me if You Can to prove he exceeds the average. It’s flattering that we’ve come to be known as the pinnacle of intellectual greatness in films and TV shows. One of the greatest references Berkeley has gotten in TV recently is in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom;” Sloan Sabbith, played by Olivia Munn, is a genius news anchor who received a degree in economics at our very own UC, Berkeley. “The Newsroom” has just entered their third and final season, and remains one of the best TV shows on HBO to date for its amazing acting, unexpected humor, and portrayal of hard-hitting issues in the news. Because of this, we are honored to have Sloan Sabbith as a fictional Cal alumna to add on our long list of campus celebrities.
“The Newsroom” chronicles the behind-the-scenes happenings of the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN) channel with an all-star cast including Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, and Sam Waterston. If you haven’t started the series yet, Olivia Munn’s performance as Sloan Sabbith is enough to start immediately. Sloan maintains the highest IQ of anyone in the newsroom and often flaunts her PhD in economics from Cal. She’s known to be the socially awkward news anchor in the office because she is so academically smart and no awareness for social queues. However, us Golden Bears aren’t offended by her portrayal of a geeky Cal bookworm who has little social ability. Sloan dominates in male-oriented field, never shies from academic debate, and never doubts her abilities. If Sorkin’s creation of Sloan is a representation of powerful and smart women who come from Cal, we’ll take it. She’s equal parts gorgeous, motivated, independent, hilarious, and weirdly intelligent.
There was a particular moment in season 2 of the series that highlighted this fictional Cal alumna as the woman we all aspire to be— intelligent, bold and daring. To offer a little context, the head news anchor (Will McAvoy played by Jeff Daniels) was recently portrayed as the “Greater Fool” in a slanderous article in The New Yorker. After self-medicating, sending him to the hospital because of the depression he felt from the untrue article, Sloan offered the following words of wisdom she founded from her economic studies at Cal:
“‘The greater fool’ is actually an economic term. It’s a patsy… For the rest of us to profit, we need a greater fool, someone who will buy long and sell short. Most people spend their lives trying not to be the greater fool. We toss him the hot potato. We dive for his seat when the music stops. The greater fool is someone with the perfect blend of self-delusion and ego to think that he can succeed where others have failed. This whole country was made by greater fools.”
Sloan, we thank you for your wisdom— especially because it’s generated from the Cal pool of genius that we all get to swim in. Despite your fictionality, you have all the qualifying factors of being a Cal campus celeb. Sloan reminds us that we all get to be the greater fool at Cal.
Photos courtesy of thenewsroom.wikia.com, hbo.com