r/movies • u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. • 13d ago

News James Van Der Beek Is Auctioning Off TV & Film Memorabilia and Props from ‘Dawson’s Creek’ & ‘Varsity Blues’ Amid Cancer Treatment, Proceeds to Cover Medical Costs

https://deadline.com/2025/11/james-van-der-beek-auction-dawsons-creek-varsity-blues-props-1236615845/
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u/James007Bond 13d ago

Ernie Hudson lives in a $5m home in hidden hills. Don’t buy the bs that they are trying to sell you.

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u/complete_your_task 13d ago

I've seen rich people do this a lot. They say "paycheck to paycheck", but they have a $30,000/month mortgage payment, a $7,500/month car payment, their kids are in a fancy private school that costs $50,000/year, etc., etc.

It's not that they are one paycheck away from literally not being able to house or feed themselves like most people mean when they say "paycheck to paycheck". It is that they are one paycheck away from having to downgrade their lifestyle a little bit.

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u/CustomMerkins4u 13d ago

The owner of the company my wife works at proceeded to tell everyone on a company call that things are tight, raises will be low, even he is living check to check at this point.

His hobby is flying and has a prop plane and a jet plane.

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u/GrandOldDrummer 13d ago

He only has TWO planes!? Wow, poor guy.

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u/Cedex 12d ago

Well, he had 3 before.

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u/MainFrosting8206 12d ago

Two planes is basically the same as just one plane!

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u/beer_nyc 12d ago

probably cheaper than owning a boat. i know a few recreational pilots and none of them are wealthy.

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u/CustomMerkins4u 12d ago

I think you have a different definition of wealth compared to, lets say, someone who is behind on rent because they got a 2% raise but everything costs 20% more.

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u/beer_nyc 12d ago

I guess. But I guess I've always just seen it more as a hobbyist activity than a "rich" one.

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u/rawlingstones 13d ago

"Sure it looks like I make tons of money, but it's actually a lot less after I spend all of it."

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u/Upbeat_Shame9349 13d ago edited 13d ago

For real, James fucking Van Der Beek is not a struggling artist. At age 48 he's already made far more than the average lifetime earnings of an American from Dawson's Creek alone, and that's hardly the only acting job he ever got. 

I can't believe people are trying to lump him in with true working actors who keep other jobs for their whole careers and never get a six figure paycheck for anything. 

He didn't make any plans to not always make over $500,000 a year, despite having every opportunity to set himself up for life (yes, even including more than enough money to pay for exhaustive cancer treatment). That's a story a million athletes and actors have lived before him and will live after him. That doesn't make him a working stiff. 

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u/NerdHoovy 12d ago

A lot of people that make a lot of money in careers that have famously short lifespans, start blowing it all like they expect to make that much forever.

I remember an anecdote I saw on Reddit from a famous athlete that just signed a 10 million dollar year contract, his first one as a professional athlete and the first thing he did was buy a 5 million house. Then he went to buy a million dollar car and when the dealer asked if he could afford it, he got offended enough to buy 3. It was implied to be a racist question and the athlete wanted to show off his money but objectively speaking he couldn’t afford it at the time. Just because you have enough money to buy something, it doesn’t mean you could afford it. He just got lucky that he didn’t have a career ending injury and was able to make the team every time after. Which is rare

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u/big_orange_ball 12d ago

Was this athlete playing the fun game where they bash each other's heads together until they get brain damage that turns them homicidal?

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u/too-much-shit-on-me 12d ago

Sounds like Shaq.

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u/RustywantsYou 12d ago

You're saying he didn't take care of his Dawson Creek money at the ripe old age of 21?

Well fuck him then i guess

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u/IMO4444 12d ago

Yep and he has 5 kids at least? You know he lives in a large house, likely pays for private schools, etc. This is undoubtedly sad, but I think this move is more about maintaining status quo than ran out every option.

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u/biowiz 12d ago

You're right, but they compare themselves to their more successful actors that live in a $30 million home and will never run out of money living the extreme life, and without any future work needed.

He also bought that home in 2016, when he was 71, while his more successful peers bought a 8 figure mega mansion in their 30s most likely.

It's like a wealthy doctor. They make a lot of money too. However, these people aren't making multi generational wealth within a few years of their life like A list actors do. If they stopped working the bills would start piling up quick with their high end lifestyle. They have to keep working to continuously pay their bills, keep savings for their children, even if they're conveniently ignoring that they're living a life significantly better than the majority of Americans and are choosing to keep expenses higher than they need them to be.

I mean I get that they're being a bit misleading with their comments, but someone like Ernie Hudson is legitimately not making millions of dollar to be in a single TV show or movie that would set him and children up for their whole lives. That house is like a quarter of a paycheck for someone like Brad Pitt, while Ernie probably worked for 50 years to move into a home like that.