A close friend of James Van Der Beek<\/a> is pushing back against criticism of the late actor\u2019s family over the launch of an online fundraiser aimed at covering their expenses following his death last week. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Saturday, actor Mehcad Brooks issued a fiery response to a Threads user who questioned the Van Der Beek family\u2019s motivations while sharing a screenshot of a TMZ article<\/a> referring to their Texas ranch, reportedly situated on 36 acres and valued at about $4.7 million. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI am one of the Van Der Beek\u2019s closet friends and the headlines are fake AF you have no idea wtf you\u2019re talking about,\u201d Brooks, whose Hollywood credits include \u201cSupergirl\u201d and \u201cLaw & Order,\u201d wrote. \u201cYou have no idea the pain they went through. It\u2019s ok to stfu when you can\u2019t know what the fuck you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s ok not to try to seek attention off of other people\u2019s suffering or the generosity in response to it. Because James touched them for decades,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s ok for you to stay quiet in the face of blind stupidity, meanness and lack of empathy. But maybe you\u2019re not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n James Van Der Beek died<\/a> Feb. 11 of colorectal cancer at age 48. The \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d actor went public<\/a> with his cancer diagnosis in November 2024. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Immediately following James Van Der Beek\u2019s death, family friends launched a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> in support of his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, and their six children, who are \u201cfacing an uncertain future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe costs of James\u2019s medical care and the extended fight against cancer have left the family out of funds,\u201d the campaign\u2019s organizers wrote. \u201cThey are working hard to stay in their home and to ensure the children can continue their education and maintain some stability during this incredibly difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As of Tuesday, the GoFundMe had garnered more than $2.6 million in donations, including a reported $25,000<\/a> from director Steven Spielberg. At the same time, Kimberly Van Der Beek found herself on the receiving end of backlash online when it was reported that she and James Van Der Beek had purchased their ranch<\/a> in January after renting the property since 2020. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n A representative for James Van Der Beek shut down speculation on Saturday, telling People<\/a> that the actor and his wife secured a down payment on the home \u201cwith the help of friends through a trust.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though James Van Der Beek had maintained a lower profile after sharing his cancer diagnosis, he continued to work, appearing on the Amazon<\/a> Prime Video series \u201cOvercompensating<\/a>,\u201d starring Benito Skinner, last year. His final on-screen appearance<\/a> will be in \u201cElle,\u201d the forthcoming \u201cLegally Blonde\u201d prequel series that\u2019s being produced by Reese Witherspoon. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Still, the actor previously acknowledged<\/a> receiving \u201calmost nothing\u201d in residuals from \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d and hinted at financial concerns in recent years. In November, he put a number of personal mementos, including props and costumes from \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d and the \u201990s comedy-drama \u201cVarsity Blues,\u201d up for auction<\/a> in order to pay for his medical expenses. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A close friend of James Van Der Beek is pushing back against criticism of the late actor\u2019s family over the launch of an online fundraiser aimed at covering their expenses following his death last week. On Saturday, actor Mehcad Brooks issued a fiery response to a Threads user who questioned the Van Der Beek family\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2286916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[349865,350582],"class_list":["post-2286915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-gofundme","tag-james-van-der-beek"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Friend-Of-James-Van-Der-Beek-Defends-Familys-GoFundMe.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2286915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2286917,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286915\/revisions\/2286917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2286916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2286915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2286915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2286915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""You](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/69948c951b0000e3dd4cc1b8.jpeg?cache=wDkSHscnw8&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale\")
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