'Save Your Money': So Much For the Firefly Charity Drive

Sad news this week from the geek-core rights-acquisition front lines: The grass-roots fund-raising campaign to help revive Joss Whedon's cult-favorite sci-fi series Firefly has died. Evidently you can stop the signal.

To review: Star Nathan Fillion made the off-handed comment to EW that he'd acquire, revive and distribute Firefly himself -- if he "got $300 million from the California Lottery." Which somehow was construed by Browncoats far and wide as their cue to launch a sweet, sincere and utterly quixotic fund-raising drive to actually help Fillion buy the rights to Firefly. After a few weeks of continued discussion and strategizing on the site HelpNathanBuyFirefly, Whedon's collaborator/sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen tweeted a reality check: "Guys, no one in the Whedonverse is in support of www.helpnathanbuyfirefly.com. Please save your money!"

That prompted both an outpouring of teeth-gnashing/grief/denial at the campaign's Facebook page and a Twitter firestorm that even Tancharoen -- hardly a stranger to the Whedonverse's rabid following -- wasn't quite prepared for:

I think what some people don't understand is - by "no one in the Whedonverse is in support of HNBF" I meant that no one is officially involved in any capacity. This is a pure fan movement. There just needed to be clarification. There were many questions coming my way so I finally answered. I wasn't trying to bash dreams, by all means come together and show your love for Firefly. But when money is involved (and pledges are meant to become real $ at some point, yes?) things get tricky... I wasn't going to say anything else on the subject as I didn't want to further fuel the already out of control fire, but unkind things have been said. And honestly, I'm afraid that I've grown afraid of the internet. Still got mad love for the Browncoats. Over and out for a bit...

"Afraid of the Internet"! Well played, team! Nevertheless, according to the HNBF Facebook HQ, it appears that some actual charity-worthy causes did benefit from the drive (including $2,500 for a child-literacy project), so Internet terror and abjection aside, can we call this a happy ending?

· @MoTancharoen [via Blastr]