A few weeks ago, I told you that James Van Der Beek was too ill to attend a Dawson’s Creek reunion which raised money for his charity, F Cancer.  But you know what they say – charity begins at home.  He’s now putting a few pieces of memorabilia on the auction block to help pay for his treatment.  “I’ve been storing these treasures for years, waiting for the right time to do something with them.  And with all of the recent unexpected twists and turns life has presented recently, it’s clear that the time is now.”  He added, “I was away for treatment, so I couldn’t be a provider because I wasn’t working.”  Proceeds from this sale will hopefully help his family.  The auction will include such iconic items as Dawson’s clothes, bedroom furnishings, and even his necklace.  James is also parting with some items from Varsity Blues.  The sale will be held on PropStoreAuction.com.

This leads to a story about Kerr Smith – and, frankly, when else will I have a segue like that?  Kerr recently went public about how he felt when he learned his character on Dawson was gay.  Kevin Williamson took him to get a cup of coffee and said, “Kerr, we wanna go down a different avenue with Jack.”  Kerr describes it as “a real bummer for me, honestly.  I was really excited because I just got my dream job and I’m so excited.  And now I’m being asked to do something very, very different.”  He didn’t say any of that to Kevin, naturally.  What he did say was, “Look, can you give me the day or a couple of days because I need to make some phone calls and basically call everyone that I respect and their opinion of, and see if…I need to make the right decision here because at that time in 1998, this is a tough one.”  Some of the people who turned to for advice were his parents, his agent, even his co-star John Wesley Shipp.  “Now looking back in hindsight, I just wanna say this: I’m super, super proud of what we pulled off because as you know, the face of television has changed, and I think people’s acceptance of other people, sexuality, or whatever it might be is much more broad and much more open these days.”  He is currently working on a book, called I Don’t Want to Wait: My Journey on Dawson’s Creek Without a Paddle.