Writer/Director Joss Whedon auctions off dinner with fans for non-profit organization Equality Now and raises $61,716

In conjunction with Dark Horse, eBay, and Auction Cause, five spots at a dinner table with Joss Whedon were offered on eBay.com/JossWhedon starting Monday, July 2nd, 2007. The ten-day auction proved to be a fierce bidding battle. The winners each paid up to $11,000 in the end. At a final count of the dinner plus auctions for signed Buffy lithographs and customized watches, the total amounted to $61,716. 

Funds raised from the charity auction benefit Equality Now. Working with national human rights organizations and individual activists, Equality Now documents violence and discrimination against women and mobilizes international action to support their efforts to stop human rights abuses. Following in his mother’s footsteps, Joss is a large contributor and major supporter of Equality Now.

During San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, Joss will take winning bidders to a swank restaurant for drinks and dinner in a private room. For three hours the lucky guests will have the chance to talk, joke, question, and food fight with their hero, Joss Whedon.

“I’m more or less overwhelmed. The generosity of the bidders—all of them—is greater than I could have expected. Equality Now needs this money for its vital work and I’m thrilled at the amount this event has raised. Thrilled and galvanized: I promise to make this dinner truly memorable. I swear not to nod off (more than twice), not to try to ‘borrow’ the guests’ wallets or set the waiters ‘on fire,’ and to learn gooder English conversating,” muses Joss Whedon. “My grateful thanks to Dark Horse, to MySpace, eBay and Auction Cause—and mad props to the man behind the curtain, Mike Boretz—for making this run so smoothly.  And to all the bidders, five of whom are in for a treat—or a least an appetizer.”

Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This Emmy and Golden Globe nominated television series gained worldwide cult status throughout its Seven Seasons. Buffy spearheaded an evolution in the depiction of women in mainstream media making room for qualities like power and strength in female characters. The success of the show has created a new universe, the Buffyverse, which has enchanted different mediums with its enlightening and revolutionary characters.

Whedon is also the creator of Firefly, a sci-fi space western that had a short run on Fox. The major motion picture, Serenity, continued the characters’ journey and extended their fictional lives. This canceled series started a worldwide fan club that fights for the promotion and future continuation of the brilliantly constructed ideology presented in the post-apocalyptic setting. 

Dark Horse has been the proud publisher of the companion comics for Buffy and Serenity since 1998, and earlier this year brought Buffy back with a direct follow-up to Season Seven of the smash-hit TV series in Buffy Season 8 with executive producer Joss Whedon!