Busy Philipps got a brain tumour diagnosis after James Van Der Beek's death

Dawson's Creek was supposed to be escapist TV. A show about hot teenagers in a small town, their messy relationships, the drama that kept you coming back. But the actual cast? They've had a rougher ride than anything that aired on screen.

James Van Der Beek died in March from colorectal cancer at 47. It shook people. And it apparently shook Busy Philipps enough that she decided to get herself checked out. Good call, as it turned out. The actress, also 47, was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour after going for a scan.

Philipps played Jen Lindley on the show and had a solid career after it wrapped. But she's dealt with her share of stuff — and now she's got this diagnosis to add to the pile. She hasn't made a big public thing of it yet, just kind of mentioned it, which honestly seems like the move when you're processing something like that.

The cast of Dawson's Creek has had a genuinely rough time, though. Beyond Van Der Beek and Philipps, there've been divorces, health issues, personal upheaval. It's almost like the show's melodrama followed them into real life, except nobody's writing a neat resolution.

Van Der Beek was the lead, the face of the whole thing. His death hit differently than a regular celebrity passing — he'd been open about his cancer fight, which made it feel more real, more immediate. And apparently it was the push some of his former castmates needed to take their health seriously.

There's no actual curse here, obviously. Just a bunch of people who were young and famous together at a specific moment in time, and then lived actual human lives with actual human problems. Some of those problems have been pretty brutal. But at least Philipps caught hers early because of a health scare that made her finally get checked out. That's something.