PRINCETON, N.J. -- A Princeton University official Tuesday decried a satirical article in the college humor magazine that poked fun at actress Brooke Shields and resulted in the ouster of the magazine's top two student editors.
'I found it extremely vulgar and sexist,' Hector Delgado, assistant dean of student affairs, said of the March issue of the Princeton Tiger. 'Not just an attack on Brooke Shields, but something just very degrading to women.
'Personally, I think it is blatantly sexist and simply lewd.'
The article was entitled 'The Princeton Man's Guide to Impressing and Sleeping with Brook If and When She Gets Here.' Miss Shields reportedly has applied for admission to Princeton this fall.
Former editor-in-chief Richard Herschlag, a junior, and former president Wendell Long, a sophomore, were removed from their positions by the publication's graduate board of trustees, which owns the magazine, on March 9 following disputes about the propriety of the magazine's last two issues.
The trustees initially decided to fire the two after the March issue appeared. The editors appealed their ouster March 24 but failed to persuade the board to reinstate them.
'I can see where someone might find it offensive, but it wasn't meant to be,' said Long. 'You have to realize we are a humor magazine.
'The grad board doesn't really understand our type of humor. It's a generation gap,' he said. 'They were brought up with 'Leave it to Beaver' and we were brought up with 'Saturday Night Live.' They're trying to censor us.'
The president of the board, Charles Frye, declined comment on the ouster or the article.
The Tiger's December issue, entitled 'The Brooke Book,' was cancelled by the university. It also contained an article alluding to the actress.
In the March article's opening paragraph, the author explained he would advise Princeton men on the ways to get a date with Miss Shields. Among the ways to impress, the article recommended, was to quit smoking, which Miss Shields has opposed in television commercials.
'Brook's really into this sort of thing, what with anti-smoking commercials... Here's your perfect opportunity to take the maternal tendency Brook shares with all women, seize upon it, exploit it, and parlay it into your very first Hollywood hump,' it said.
