Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz in College

mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, continued its surprise “Stand In” event series today by hosting actress Cameron Diaz at Stanford University. With mtvU cameras following, Diaz and world-renowned architect and designer William McDonough surprised Stanford’s “Maintaining Sustainable Building Projects” class where she greeted the fifty unsuspecting students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program as their “Stand In” professor. In addition to discussing the sustainable development movement and civil engineering techniques being used to help protect the environment, Diaz also told students of her own experiences traveling to some of the most ecologically unique locales in her MTV series “Trippin.” mtvU’s “Stand In” with Cameron Diaz and William McDonough will be available on-demand on mtvU’s broadband network “mtvU Über” (www.mtvu.com) beginning Tuesday, November 1 and air on mtvU at 12:00PM ET/9:00AM (PT) on Wednesday, November 2.

“Cameron Diaz has used her passion for the environment to focus global attention on this issue,” said Stephen Friedman, GM, mtvU. “It’s an honor to bring her and William McDonough – arguably one of today’s most respected sustainable development experts – to share their thoughts and ideas with college students.”

“If telling my stories can somehow highlight sustainable design and environmental protection issues in the minds of the people who will be planning and building our cities, then I hope that they can somehow redefine the way engineering impacts our environment,” said Cameron Diaz. “Giving these students this surprise was not only fun, but hopefully Mr. McDonough and I gave them some food for thought as they progress through their education and move into their chosen career path.”

Diaz is an international superstar with more than twenty-five feature films to her credit including the current hit “In Her Shoes” with Toni Collette and Shirley MacLain, “There’s Something About Mary,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Shrek.” This spring, Diaz traveled the globe’s most exotic, and sometimes ecologically threatened, wonders to seek and discover ways to preserve them in MTV’s adventure reality series “Trippin.’

Cameron Diaz is also involved with mtvU's ongoing CURB GLOBAL WARMING campaign, organizing college students to join a virtual march on Washington. Students who register for the campaign online at www.mtvU.com are eligible to win Larry David's hybrid car.

William McDonough is a world-renowned architect and designer and winner of three U.S. presidential awards: the Presidential Award for sustainable Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004), and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2003). Time magazine recognized him as a “Hero for the Planet” in 1999, stating, “His utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that – in demonstrable and practical ways – is changing the design of the world.” Mr. McDonough is the founder and principal of two design firms, McDonough + Partners and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. Mr. McDonough is also a consulting professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University.

Cameron Diaz and William McDonough are the latest national public figures to participate as a guest in mtvU’s “Stand In” event series. Each stepping in as a guest professor and teaching a class unique to their experience and background, previous participants include Madonna, Bill Gates, Melissa Etheridge, Kanye West, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel, Russell Simmons, author Tom Wolfe, Marilyn Manson, Senator John McCain and Sting.