DELL DITCHES DUDE; CURTIS CONTRACT CANCELLED

Dell, the computer manufacturer, has fired pitchman Benjamin Curtis, a
Tisch School of the Arts senior, following his Feb. 9 arrest for purchasing
marijuana, Curtis told The New York Sun.

Curtis, known to millions as "Steven the Dell Dude" from a series of the
company's commercials, said he was "done with the Dell stuff" and hoped to
land a role in a film, this time playing an adult. His Dell contract was
valued at around $500,000 before being canceled, The Sun reported.

Curtis' portrayal of "Steven" popularized the slogan "Dude, yer gettin' a
Dell," but the company's newest advertising campaign featured him in a
reduced role.

"I was getting frustrated," Curtis said. "My creative talent was getting
wasted. All the best takes we did were never shown. I felt hindered as a
performer."

Curtis was arrested earlier this month by a New York Police Department
anti-narcotics detail for reportedly trying to buy about two ounces of
marijuana from a Queens resident on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He was
arraigned in New York Criminal Court on Feb. 10, where a judge told him the
charges would be dismissed if he was not arrested in the next year.

- -- Justin Brenneman,

campus editor