As some of you may know, I’ve lived in Chicago my whole life. While we’re the third-largest city in the country, the longer you live here, the more you realize how small it actually is. My social circle, while staying about the same since I entered puberty, seems to have overlapped and encompassed other social circles over the years. It’s not uncommon to go out to parties or shows and see the same exact people, despite varying degrees of separation. Before long, I’ve found myself being a fan of that guy from Greek‘s old ska-punk band or an ex-co-worker of an intern on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

As some of you may already be aware of, an ex-American Idol contestant, Chris Medina, has taken the country by storm with his heart-wrenching love story involving his fiancee, Juliana. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, you can read more about it here.

You might be asking yourself, “But Geoff, how does this tie in with you, let alone with Flixist?” As previously stated, Chicago social circles tend to overlap, and mine just so happened to intertwine with Chris’s. While I’m only indirectly involved, I feel compelled to help out in any wide-spread way that I can.

Apparently, some actors in Hollywood feel the same way. Recently, Topher Grace made a large donation of $35,000 to Juliana’s foundation. Not to rest on those laurels, Grace and one of the producers of the upcoming film, Take Me Home Tonight, are donating 1% of the box office sales to Juliana’s foundation. While 1% may not seem like much, keep in mind that $30m would translate into $300,000, which is an AMAZING amount of money.

So if you were on the fence about the film, remember that a portion of the sales are actually going to a great cause. If you’d like to make a donation directly to the foundation, you can check out the Laurus Foundation website. If you’d like to read more about Chris Medina or show some support, he has a Facebook fan page.

[via Ryan Seacrest , image via Anthony Johnson]