central perk

Friends cafe in Toronto canceled and asking for money

Sorry, but this is the one with all of the disappointment: Toronto won't be getting its own Friends-themed cafe - a.k.a Central Perk - this summer after all. Instead, Josh Botticelli, who was behind this wildly popular scheme, cancelled his Facebook event and is now using the crowd-funding platform GoFundMe to recoup his costs.

According to CTV News, Botticelli had to scrap his plan because Warner Bros., which owns the Friends rights, said it would be a trademark violation.

"We submitted a 20 page proposal on creating an authorized version under their control in order to keep the event alive," writes Botticelli on his GoFundMe page.

"I spoke with the VP of their promotions department in California and they expressed that Toronto would not be a viable option at this time due to their being a lack of a significant sponsor. Under these circumstances, it is with sadness that I must cancel the parody central perk event this summer."

Botticelli says he sunk a lot of money into his project. That's why he's now trying to get some of it back with a crowd-funding campaign he launched on April 30. So far, two people have donated a total of $25. He hopes to raise $2,000 and wants to try to bring Central Perk to Toronto for 2017.

For now though, you might just say that he and these plans are on a break.


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