Course: An Introduction to Western Civilisation: Ancient Civilisations from Prehistory to Circa AD 843. Having been thrust into showbiz as a 13-year-old, Shakira had little time for academic proclivities while growing up. But in summer 2007, she enlisted as "Isabelle" on a six-week course at the University of California, dressing like a boy in order to avoid being recognised. Her savant spurs don't end there: she's fluent in Spanish, English, Arabic and Portuguese, plus has a reputed IQ of over 140.
In 2007, cough syrup-guzzling New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne signed up for an online course in psychology via the University of Phoenix (he'd already attended the University of Houston two years earlier). So inspiring was the course, Wayne waxed poetic to The Guide in 2008 about "the beauty of psychology, the beauty of humanity. Psychology teaches you that you could never know someone". Three years later he was banged up in Rikers Island jail, where presumably he had as many psychological case studies as he wanted …