dolphinboy

I sent off a message to Nathan, not only thinking it would ignored but that the man, if he even bothered to read it, would take me off his friends list for asking him the question that I asked him.

However, much to my surprise, the very smart, sarcastic, and articulate Mr. Fillion, almost seemingly in character, not only read my message but decided to post the entire letter and his reply on his myspace page.

Now, to give you an idea of what kind of respose I got, I actually screwed up so bad in my message that I called Slither...Sliver (the Sharon Stone film), something Nathan makes sure to take my to task for in his own special way.

Well, this is my 15 minutes, so if you want to see your own dolphinboy getting special treatment and mention from tv and movie star Nathan Fillion, check out the link and look for where it says "A letter from Dolphinboy."

My response to all of this is on page 7 of the comments that this letter has already gotten.

I expect a lot of mocking to go on in this thread, so don't hold back.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...7-91753e5fe1ac

RichC2

Mind posting it? Too many hoops to jump through to view it for the non-MySpace elite.

slop101

Yeah, I gave up looking for it.

dolphinboy

Sure, it begins with my letter and then he gives his response. My response to his response follows.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

A letter from Dolphinboy

(ME)

We are getting a new puppy for our daughter and we can't think of an original name. We've gone through breeders and expect to get the bitch (it's a female dog, I'm not being rude) within 4 months.

You are the most clever man on MySpace, please, at your leisure, come up with 3-5 names for us.

We already considered River and my wife said no, as I once dated a woman named Rainy and they both start with an R and are wet. I can't afford a divorce.

Nothing like Poopsy or Muffin....that's so not cool and nothing like ordinary like Mary or Jewel. You must read a lot of scripts with cool, original names in them, possibly "toss" me a few for my daughter's sake.

I hope that wasn't considered guilt. All Firefly and Serenity names other than River just don't work. I can't name the dog Saffron or Wash.

Please help, I'm having trouble sleeping.

PS-Loved Sliver...you and the entire cast did a great job with that and, listening to the commentary, it seems like you really enjoyed the experience.


(Nathan)
Dear Mr. Boy,
You were right to write right away. Right. The name of a little one's dog can be very important. It is my belief that you'd want to steer clear of names that describe the dog, Patches, Socks, Blackie, etc- They show a general disinterest of the dog's true qualities. There is an exception to this rule, however. If, upon receiving the dog, your daughter screams out a name that cleverly and acurately pegs the animal in a poetic fashion- the name will stick. This has more to do with destiny than preference. ie- My niece, upon opening a box containing a black and white Shitsu: "ohmygodilovehimsomuchhe'sperfectandI'llcallhimOreo!"
Now, some will call a dog by a human name such as Steve or Doug. To me, this is an obvious ploy to be seen as "cool", yet misses the boat. If a human name is to be used, let it honor the dead. I have two great names in my family that I regret were not bestowed upon me. Quinter, and Tycho (pronounced Two-ko). Fine names for any dog or actor.
There is also the name in front of your nose. C'mere. You're going to be saying to the dog all the time, anyway.
Personal preference? I have made peace with the cat that came with the house I live in, and want for her name to live on, as she is knocking on heaven's door (if you know what I mean. She's a stranger in this land, and heaven is her home) her name is Dirty Cat. This may seem like a ploy for attention, so the shortened form of the affectionate, DC, should be used.
Good luck with DC, may she be a loyal companion, a source of entertainment, a lesson in responsibility, and you daughter's first foray into death and loss.
Nathan
PS. You were watching Sharon Stone's movie that I wasn't in. Run on down to Tower Video and pick yourself up a copy of SLiTHER, you won't regret it.

10:24 AM - 339 Comments - 398 Kudos - Add Comment

(ME)
Ok, it's me. I was in such a good mood following da Bears game and now I find that my private letter has been put up on Nathan's page for all of you "nobodys", who've never had an actor publicly humiliate you (jealous much?) on their myspace page, to read and comment on. I'm not as good with sarcasm as Nathan, so now don't go off on a rant that I'm insulting anyone.

First off, I did see Slither. Elizabeth Banks really made that film! I should have known better than adding a PS. Anything you leave for a PS and isn't worthy of being in the main body of your letter is bound to bite you in the ass. In my defense, I wasn't watching Sliver and I should, at the very least get half credit for referring to Nathan's commentary, which would clearly have been out of place if it were to be on the Sliver dvd. All I can do now is apologize for the mistake, admit that I'm human, beg to be forgiven, and ask that you don't bring this up on any future commentary tracks you do or publish anything about me and my stupid mistake in Variety.

After a short talk with the mother of my little girl about this public flogging, we have decided to name the dog Jewel Staite, after our favorite Firefly/Serenity character and, from what I've heard, she was also very good in Sliver.

Posted by Dolphinboy on Sunday, January 14, 2007

Groucho

Viewable to friends only.

dolphinboy

The whole thing is right above your post.

Ovid

Okay. Your original letter is incredibly condescending. While there is noting bad or wrong specifically, the tone is passive-aggressive (the worst quality in all the universe), the compliments back-handed, and the 'jokes', again, come off as condescending.

It didn't strike me as such until I read your reply to his reply. "publicly humiliate"? It wouldn't suprise me if he felt his reply was friendly. It had the exact same tone as yours!! And yet his is an "attack"!!

IMO, you sound angry. You, if nothing less, confused this person and when he tried to play along, you got more angry, but at him this time.

Incredibly hard to read any of this from those few letters. But if I am this confused, imagine how he would have been after that first one.

dolphinboy

I think the tone of my first letter was perfectly fine and in keeping with the same kind of tone that Nathan often uses.

I think if anyone is confused, it's you.

I am fairly confident that Mr. Fillion found my original message to be humorous and wouldn't have posted the letter and then spent all that time with a clever response, that in NO WAY was mean-spirited to me, if he thought I was condescending.

In fact, you calling it condescending is so befuddling, that I wonder if you've used the wrong word.

Nathan Fillion KNEW that I saw Slither NOT Sliver, as I wrote, because I refer specifically to HIS commentary. Certainly he remembers making this commentary and knows that it would NOT be on the Sliver dvd. Yet, he STILL went on to make a joke of it. Was he being mean? No, not in my opinion. He was just having some fun with me all in good fun.

He is an extremely sarcastic individual and it was my intention to write him a letter, that out of the thousands he gets, would stick out and grab him as unusual and clever and give him some reason to respond. I think all the evidence was that it worked.

My second response was also just trying to be a little silly about the whole thing. Honestly, it is a bit shocking when a celebrity posts your screen name and letter on their page. I've gotten more friend requests today than in the entire time I've had the page.

Even the mention of him "flogging" me was tongue-in-cheek. If the guy was ripping me a new one, I don't think I would have posted it here.

Finally, while some of the nearly 400 comments did have some fun with me because of the Silver mistake, not one person that I can recall made any mention of my letter being condescending, rude, or anything negative. Almost all thought it was funny, although some thought it was more of a serious request than it actually was, but considering the loyalty of his fans I don't think they would have let me slide unscathed if they thought my letter was in any way rude.

dpz301

i just watched the first disc of firefly today, haha.

i feel like you could have came up with a name without trying to ask nathan though.

FantasticVSDoom

We named our cat River just to let ya know...

dolphinboy

Of course we could have. I wanted to see if I could write something that he would find interesting or just strange enough to actually respond to.

I certainly didn't feel confident that I accomplished that goal, but I guess I did, because he not only responded but posted it on his blog.

There's no way he thought I was being rude. He response was very cool, but when he hit me with the Sliver thing, he totally left me out to dry with some of his fans who didn't pay attention to the mention of me hearing his commentary track...which he did for Slither. So, I did get quite the flogging from some of his fans.

River would be a fine choice (maybe the perfect choice), but there actually is a reason I can't use it.

dpz301

is she as creepy as the character on the show/movie?

FantasticVSDoom

She is real sweet acutally, except for when the dog chases her, then she unleashes a series of "ninja-like" strikes to the top of his head which pretty much ends the torment

nazz

We had a cat when I was a kid that my father named DC (Damn Cat).

sven

Nathan Fillion is my hero.

Gunde

Nothing rude about the letter at all. I think Ovid read something else and replied to the wrong thread!?!?

It's all good fun and tongue-in-cheek

Anubis2005X

Yeah, thanks for posting this. Fun read...

Ranger

Yeah, the Firefly people are great. They're still going to conventions now and then. Jewel Staite has her own blog that is interesting to read too.

I have to admit I wouldn't have bothered to read your letter or reply to it but I wouldn't have bothered to have a myspace profile either. Just not my thing.

calhoun07

My sister had a cat once that she named DC, for the same meaning. When they got a second cat and they wanted a name for it, I suggested Marvel as a joke and they named the cat Marvel.

TimeandTide

Ditto! I enjoyed the exchange.

dolphinboy

According to Jewel, Nathan kind of nudged her into doing the myspace thing again.

I guess both of them had people with accounts who were pretending to be them and Nathan figured he might as well create his own, shut down the imposter, and have a little fun with his celebrity.

He's very smart and very funny.

I am not a typical myspace user...I'm not in their demo. But it's really good for keeping up and supporting indie music and that's my favorite genre, so that's why I set the account up.

The whole thing with Nathan was a huge surprise and a lot of fun.

dolphinboy

Thanks.

I was just trying to have fun and it ended up turning into something bigger than I expected.

It's kind of fun to interact with someone that you admire even if it's not face to face.

It also reinforced my belief that he is a great guy.

mndtrp

I dug the first and second letter. Your reply to the reply didn't seem quite as fun. Maybe I'm just not as up to speed as everyone else.

Sliver would actually make a cool name for a cat, it's too bad you got a dog.

Interesting interaction, though. It made a few minutes of my life at work a little more fun.

dolphinboy

I think that it might have been a funny thing to try to have worked in that I was going to name the dog Sliver because he made "such a fool of me" for accidentally typing the wrong name when he knew I saw the right film. Which is what got me in trouble with his legion of fans in the first place.

Too late for that joke. In fact, while people are still suggesting names, unless Nathan posts about the matter again, my 14 seconds of "fame" are pretty much up.

There was a 4th response in his blog trying to make up a bit for my response to his response. I did come off as a bit too serious I think; maybe I was being a bit defensive because every other post was mentioning what a dork I was for watching the entire Sharon Stone movie "Sliver" and NOT noticing that Nathan wasn't in it.

Still, the majority of messages I've gotten have been positive, so I think people, by and large, got that it was all a joke and felt I was a good sport about it.

As creative as he is, his post back about my letter wouldn't have really been as good or packed the same punch if I hadn't given him that big piece of red meat by accidentally typing Sliver instead of Slither. When he saw that, despite the mention of the commentary which he knew meant I was watching the right film and had made a simple mistake, his eyes bugged out and he waited until the end to hammer me. Knowing that most people wouldn't really even understand, know the details, or remember my mention of listening to his commentary.

Next up....I try to convince Jewel Staite that I'm Matthew Fox (despite being married, she has a HUGE crush on him).

JohnSlider

I agree 100%, it reads more like Nathan was just joking around, and trying to be friendly, it doesn't seem to me at all that he was trying to 'humiliate you'.