As of Tuesday, the GoFundMe that was set up to help James Van Der Beek’s family pay for “essential living expenses” and keep the 36-acre ranch they’d been renting just outside of Austin, TX, has raised almost $2.7 million. Since it launched, however, there’s been a lot of confusion about the Van Der Beeks’ finances. In the months before his passing, James was open about how expensive his ancer treatments were. This made total sense to anyone who has ever had any experience with America’s for-profit healthcare system.
Since then, we’ve learned that James had bought the ranch through an LLC on January 9 for $4.76 million. It was purchased through a trust and his friends helped with the down payment. People also started pointing out that he and his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, still owned their home in Beverly Hills, which reportedly leases out for $12,000/month and is estimated to be worth $4 million. The GoFundMe raising its goal several times from the original $500,000 to the current $1.5 million also left a bad taste in some people’s mouths, and they have been vocal about it online. When James’ good friend, Mehcad Brooks, saw a Threads post from someone saying that the GFM didn’t sit right with them, he jumped in to defend the VDB family. According to Mehcad, the headlines are fake news, the general public has no clue about the truth, and everyone should just shut up with their criticism.
James Van Der Beek‘s friend and fellow actor Mehcad Brooks (“True Blood,” “Mortal Kombat”) recently used Threads (via Daily Beast) to slam the backlash over the GoFundMe that was created to raise money for Van Der Beek’s wife and children after his death. The campaign raised $2.6 million after revealing the late actor’s cancer battle had left his family “out of funds.” However, detractors emerged on social media.
“This doesn’t sit right with me. Not at all,” one user on Threads posted about the GoFundMe. “Sure, I get it. But thousands of people around the world face this exact situation every day and deal with the struggle. They don’t get $2.5 million. It’s just weird. He had to have had life insurance… and residual checks…”
Brooks saw this post and fired back in a response that reads: “I am one of the Van Der Beek’s closet friends and the headlines are fake AF you have no idea wtf you’re talking about,” Brooks wrote amid backlash. “You have no idea the pain they went through. It’s ok to stfu when you can’t know what the f-ck you’re talking about. It’s ok not to try to seek attention off of other people’s suffering or the generosity in response to it. Because James touched them for decades. It’s ok for you to stay quiet in the face of blind stupidity, meanness and lack of empathy. But maybe you’re not okay.”
Brooks has used social media in the days after Van Der Beek’s death to mourn and honor his friend. In a carousel of photos of the two together, Brooks wrote that it was “one of the greatest honors of my life is to call James my brother. It cannot be understated how much impact this man had on the world, particularly those who knew him closely. He was and always will be an angel among us.”
“I was with him for the last four days,” Brooks continued. “He handled the transition from flesh and blood, earth and bone to air and spirit, energy and soul like a true King. James truly impacted me in such a unique and special way that I’d be on this phone all day trying to explain it to you all… You have no idea how wonderful of a human being he truly is.”
Mehcad is right that we don’t have all of the details about James’ illness or the Van Der Beeks’ finances. We can only go by public records and what the family has shared. Maybe James bought the ranch to call it a homestead and put it into a trust in order to protect it from creditors. Perhaps they’re selling the Beverly Hills home whenever the current lease is up. It’s not really any of our business, but if they’re going to continue to ask people to give money, then they should be prepared for pushback. The average American doesn’t have enough money saved up for a medical emergency, let alone a platform to ask for donations at this level. It’s time to close the GFM and work with a financial planner on how to best use that money going forward.
I don’t know how (if at all) this fits into any of the VDB’s current financial situation, but TMZ reported that in November 2021, James and Kimberly received a lien from the IRS for failure to pay their taxes in 2018 and 2019 in the amount of $269,328.62. They paid it off in April 2022 and the lien was released.
photos credit: Faye Sadou/Avalon, Drew Altizer/Wenn/Avalon, Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon
To me its very simple, no one is being forced to donate and it isnt tax payer money. So show me someone in that situation who wouldn’t accept the same gesture.
It’s not a matter of accepting that same gesture, it’s a matter of soliciting it — when you have millions, apparently.
Look, if you want to give them money, please do so. If you don’t please do that. What we all get to do is mind the business that pays us. My Boss lost their home in the fires. They only had the clothes on their backs. So we all chipped in, yeah I’m sure my little 100 was no big deal but it was the decent thing to do. If you don’t want to just keep scrolling.
Lovely gesture. I find it interesting that y’all could do that. As a federal employee, that’s not something I’d be able to do. You cannot raise money for a boss, not even in an event like this. You also cannot gift anyone anything worth more than $10 (or is it $20?).
Why is he swearing at people? The poster wasn’t even slamming the VDB family, just saying that it doesn’t sit right. Brooks doesn’t have to come AT people for wondering what’s going on, which is exactly what that poster was doing.
If you’re asking people for money, then — yeah — they MIGHT want to know if you actually need it. Why flip out when people ask questions? — especially when the family’s OWN team put out the information about the purchased ranch.
Very rude to accuse the poster of a lack of empathy.
Yeahhhhhh his response was very…extra…to me. He seems very angry considering I didn’t even see anyone complaining about their GFM in the first place- the overall tones have been very sympathetic in an age where we watch people rip celebrities apart for less. Even the people inquiring about the “need” for the GFM weren’t nasty about it.
It seemed a bit much to me, too.
How nice a person is or how much pain they were in isn’t the point that detractors are addressing, Mr. Brooks. That this is public instead of private is what’s creating dissent. It’s lovely when a community bands together to help a family. This particular family has a lot of wealthy friends that many people don’t have, so a GFM doesn’t seem above board. And, we have no idea. That’s true.
Multiple things can be true at once… No one should go bankrupt because of a medical crisis. No one knows the real details of their finances (amount of debt, assets) and how much was left when he died. Making the go-fund me public was a money grab and tacky when so many people are struggling with medical debt without wealthy friends/family. His friends, co-workers and the studio that made Dawson’s Creek should step up and help his family in a more structured way than the public giving them millions with no strings attached. The entire “have a huge family, screech anti-vax lunacy, homeschool the kids while living on a homestead” magat energy is creepy af and it is dangerous to isolate kids into cultish situations.
I agree with you. It is awful for them to lose JVDB so young and the American healthcare system sucks. But the amount of money the GFM has raised makes me feel icky when there are so many other people suffering. They should have closed it once it reached its goal and encouraged people to donate to others.
Agreed. The family has enough wealthy and connected friends who have even more wealthy and connected friends they could have solicited for financial help if its needed. I know that well-known actors and artists can have far less money than it can appear because of the way residuals are or are not paid and its simple for cancer to bankrupt just about anyone. That being said, this is a situation of some rich people not knowing how to read the room right now. They had many options for privately and discretely raising that money that would have avoided any of the understandable blowback.
Absolutely all of these feelings are valid, and this is not a zero-sum game. You can mourn his loss, acknowledge the tragedy of his situation and the clusterf*&^k of the American healthcare system — and also recognize there are some gross factors involved, too. That the vDBs didn’t advocate for good healthcare choices for anyone else; that maybe they’re being squirrely with their finances; and that once again systems are designed to uphold the wealthy rather than “normies” like us.
If you dont want to donate, then dont. If you do then do it. And as for people who feel the go fund should have been closed, didn’t the man die just last week? Maybe there were other things going on? How do you know the family won’t donate excess funds or set up a scholarship or something else in his name? Listen, this man was not of my generation so I’m not a fan, never saw an episode of his show, nothing. But I’ve seen this same criticism of other GFM for just regular people, accusing them of being greedy and cash grabs and the like and I dont get it. You have the right to do with your money like you see fit. I wish we that option with our current government, to just opt out. Look you have a right to express your opinions. But no one is forcing you to donate.
But that’s what people are doing? — expressing their opinions. As you say, they have that right.
I’m cutting him a lot of slack. He lost a very good friend, he was there in the very final days. He’s grieving.
Anger is a stage in the grieving process, he’s very raw right now, it’s only been a week. And you can’t lash out at cancer, it’s not a physical thing. So he got mouthy and defensive on social media.
He may have hurt some feelings, people side eying the language (I did, honestly). He’s processing. In all the ways to express the immediate anger of losing someone you love, while this may not be a healthy way, it’s not the worst way.
(he might benefit from therapy, or support groups a bit later on, but like I said, it’s barely been a week)
You make a good point, thank you for the reminder.
I know I’m going to catch hell for this but van der Beek left California to assuage all those right-wing crap beliefs everyone uses to go to tax haven Texas … where it is NOT heaven … while owing federal income taxes for almost 10 years!!
Sorry for his loved ones but spare me.
it looks like they got the health care system they voted for