Joss Whedon

You know, I’m surprised Nathan Fillion took another job for FOX. These are, after all, the folks who gave quite possibly the finest science fiction series of the last 10 years, "Firefly," the ax after just a handful of episodes.

This spring season? Same treatment. The Fillion-led "Drive," which had a nifty setup, a diverse, well-gathered cast and promise for some excellent escapist warm-weather viewing, was cut off at the knees after the first few episodes didn’t draw staggering numbers. This is not exactly a new thing. Networks, with rare exception, have shorter fuses than ever when it comes to pulling the plug on new series. Shows like "Friday Night Lights," which are stellar TV but don’t draw big numbers, are more often than not thrown on the scrapheap. "FNL" was renewed for another season, thankfully, but it was by no means a certain thing right up until the announcement.

So, Fillion, one of the most intense young actors in the business, got the shaft again. But, lucky you, you can see him in his finest work this coming weekend ... and you’ll be supporting a good cause at the same time.

For the second straight year, Can’t Stop the Serenity, a series of benefit screenings of "Serenity," Joss Whedon’s brilliant, intelligent and just flat-out fun film based on the "Firefly" series, is taking place in theaters around the world. Starting with Des Moines, Pittsburgh and others on Thursday and hitting its crescendo on Saturday night, June 23, Can’t Stop the Serenity hopes to top last year’s total of $65,000 raised for Equality Now. I’ll be emceeing the screening in Charlotte, N.C., closest to my home.

"Serenity" is vintage Whedon. Those who watched "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" know his penchant for dialogue that moves with a whipcrack and wit that quite often gets past you the first time. Fillion and Gina Torres, who plays Zoe, are veterans of Whedon work, having appeared in "Buffy" and "Angel" respectively. If you haven’t seen Fillion’s turn as a demonic preacher in the series’ last season, you don’t know what you’re missing.

In one tidy package, "Serenity" gives you a ripping good yarn, a group of actors at the top of their games and special effects that actually contribute to the story instead of substituting for it. You’ll laugh, you’ll holler and when the movie ends you’ll feel like about 30 minutes has passed instead of two hours. Don’t be at all surprised if the overwhelming urge to buy or rent the "Firefly" DVDs comes over you immediately upon leaving the theater.

Equality Now

Equality Now is an organization dedicated to ending discrimination and violence against women and girls worldwide, battling on fronts stretching from voting and reproductive rights to the sick horror of female genital mutilation. This is serious stuff, folks, and they deserve your help.

And, best of all, you’ll get to hang out with a bunch of "Serenity" fans, commonly known to be among the coolest folks on the planet. Most screenings have things like silent auctions and other events where you can lay hands on your own bit of "Firefly" or "Serenity" loot, if that’s your thing. Or, you can just snag some popcorn and settle in for a couple of hours of stellar science fiction.

So that’s my spiel. Now it’s up to you, dear reader. Just go here and find the screening near you. Buy your tickets. Prepare to have fun.

Tolerance ... To A Point?

I’ve often made it a point to compliment my fellow citizens on their choice of bumper sticker verbiage. Folks with "Visualize Whirled Peas" stickers, for instance, are almost always the kind of people I’d like to meet. For fear of alienating large blocks of my readership, I won’t delineate the stickers that cause me to avoid their owners ... or the ones that make me want to ram their owners into a ditch.

Last weekend, I was at the hardware store and helped a woman load some garden timbers into the back of her SUV. When I closed the tailgate, I noticed she had a bumper sticker that said "Tolerance," with various religious symbols making up some of the letters. This is just the sort of thing I like to see. I complimented her on her choice of sticker, then noted that there was no pentacle, the Wiccan symbol recently approved for use on military headstones, among the ones gathered.

She replied, "Well, at least it’s got all the important ones."

How’s that again? Important to whom? Do we now rank religions on the basis of importance? I must have missed a memo somewhere. I daresay a Roman back in the early days of Christianity might have said the same thing about those odd little peace-loving folk who were so silly as to worship a single tripartite god rather than the pantheon in vogue at the time.

As George Carlin would say, these are the sorts of thoughts that keep me from fitting in among normal folk.