Saratoga Springs’ pop culture profile has been on the rise of late. Just this past weekend, the Spa City got a mention in a Saturday Night Live outtake that’s since gone viral on YouTube. And back in January, a Saratoga couple, Jim and Kelly Thornton, announced that they were looking to fund a museum in the city based on their sprawling X-Files memorabilia collection, a story that’s gotten quite a bit of local media attention. But now, one of the world’s biggest TV gossip shows has weighed in.
On a recent episode of TMZ’s TV show, one of the gossip outlet’s reporters tracked down former X-Files star David Duchovny to do a short, on-the-street interview with the actor (for any fans of TMZ, this is its bread-and-butter). After a short lead-in, name-dropping Saratoga, one of the questions the reporter asks Duchovny is about the Saratoga couple’s X-Files museum. “They’re looking for a space right now,” says the reporter, to which Duchovny responds, “They have my blessings, they have my blessings.” The reporter then follows that up with, “Would you help them [with the museum] if they asked you?” To which he responded, “Probably not.” (You can watch the full clip on the X-Files Preservation Collection‘s Facebook group feed.)
So what if Duchovny doesn’t seem so enthused about funding the museum? Saratoga will take his blessing any day for the Thorntons’ unique museum idea. And well, the couple technically doesn’t even need Duchovny’s money anyway: Their recently ended IndieGoGo campaign, to help get the museum off the ground in Saratoga, was 99 percent funded by 164 backers (i.e. they got $7,961 of the $8,000 they asked for to get it off the ground, and will get that seed money).
