Matthew Fox
Gossip

As if Matthew Fox doesn't face enough obstacles in his life these days. You know, with the whole being-locked-up-by-The-Others thing.

Now, the star of Lost is being dissed - and dismissed, no less - by students at Columbia University.

The Ivy League school has asked Fox to speak at its graduation ceremony this year. But many students feel as though this is somehow a step down from last year's speaker: John McCain. One smartie wrote in the Columbia Spectator:

"I've never heard of this guy. The years before got a Pulitzer Prize-winner and a potential presidential candidate. I suppose that after what happened last year, they wanted someone less controversial."

Hey, we understand preferring someone with more to say than an actor - but this book worm has been stuck in a library for far too long if he hasn't even heard of Fox. What's next, shock over Antonella Barba pictures?

No idea who Lauren Conrad is?

We say Columbia should ask The Hollywood Gossip staff to speak at graduation instead. Otherwise, these kids will never be ready for the real world.

There's something about the name "Matthew" that elicits nudity. For starters, everyone knows about Matthew McConaughey and his aversion to wearing shirts.

Elsewhere, skinny-dipping enthusiast and Lost star, Matthew Fox, says that his affinity for swimming in his birthday suit is mostly about shock value.

"When I was a kid there wasn't a huge delineation in our family between having clothes on or not having clothes on. And the reason I have so much fun doing it now is people are so shocked by it, and, like, 'Oh, my God, Fox just took his clothes off!'" the 40-year-old actor star tells Men's Journal.

Maybe this is where former Party of Five co-star, Lacey Chabert, got the idea to get so nude in a magazine shoot recently.

In other male nudity news: Matt Damon told the New York Daily News' Rush & Molloy what it was like free ballin' in Robert De Niro's spy drama The Good Shepherd.

His character engages in your basic naked mud wrestling as part of his initiation into the Yale secret society Skull & Bones.

"You go, you take off all your clothes, you get lathered up with mud and you wrestle," said the actor, who did it even though he's "36 years old and my naked wrestling days are over."

Alas, Damon also lamented how cold it was on the set. Yes, there was shrinkage. Which we understand.

But is that also Kate Moss' excuse for her recent topless pics?