James Franco on the set of the upcoming movie "Howl"

Seems that making loads of money filming awesome movies is more important to James Franco than delivering a speech of reassuring niceties to a group of people who will start off their adult lives in $100,000 worth of  student loan debt. The actor and star of “Spiderman” and “Pineapple Express” , who is also a UCLA alumni, released this statement about why he backed out of his commencement speech obligations.

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“I deeply regret not being able to keep my commitment to giving the commencement speech at UCLA’s graduation this year,” Franco said in a prepared statement provided to the university. “Unfortunately, the date conflicts with me needing to be on location to begin pre-production on my next film. I wish everyone in the 2009 class the best of luck in all of their future endeavors.”

UCLA is scrambling to find a worthwhile replacement for the Golden Globe nominated actor.