Ben Stein’s “documentary”, Expelled, opens with an effective scene where he passionately addresses an audience of enthusiastic college students about how those evil evolutionary scientists are suppressing free speech in academia. In today’s eSkeptic, Michael Shermer reveals why those “college students” looked just a little too much like they had stepped in from Central Casting:

The biology professors at Pepperdine assure me that their mostly Christian students fully accept the theory of evolution. So who were these people embracing Stein’s screed against science? Extras. According to Lee Kats, Associate Provost for Research and Chair of Natural Science at Pepperdine, “the production company paid for the use of the facility just as all other companies do that film on our campus” but that “the company was nervous that they would not have enough people in the audience so they brought in extras. Members of the audience had to sign in and the staff member reports that no more than two to three Pepperdine students were in attendance. Mr. Stein’s lecture on that topic was not an event sponsored by the university.” [emphasis mine]