Not every *celebrity* Kickstarter campaign has been a success. We only hear about the high-flyers. But what about those that fail? It may or may not be a surprise to some of you that there are indeed those that don’t quite make the cut. And in some cases – one specific case, anyway – failed miserably!

I guess that’s the risk *celebs* take when they opt to go the crowdfunding route. It’s like a measure of your popularity, or how much you fans are invested (not monetarily) in you and your vision.

With the immense successes of campaigns for a Veronica Mars movie as well as Zach Braff’s indie drama, we’ve learned that Kickstarter can be an excellent way for folks at their level to fund their projects, and keep them independent.

However, earlier this week, on Monday, actress Melissa Joan Hart (likely best known for her star-turn headlining the TV series Sabrina the Teenage Witch for some 7 seasons) learned something else entirely – that not every Kickstarter campaign with a *name* of any kind behind it, guarantees success.

On Monday, Hart canceled her Kickstarter campaign to fund a feature project titled Darci’s Walk Of Shame. Why did she cancel it? Well, the campaign, which actually still had another 2 weeks to do until it ended, was falling woefully short of its goal.

How short? As of her cancellation, the campaign had raised just over $51,000 dollars. Not bad, you’re probably thinking, given that it’s a figure many indie film campaigns struggle to raise.

But Hart’s campaign goal was $2 million! So, do the math! The campaign was launched on April 11, with a May 26 closing date, and she likely wouldn’t have raised the remaining $1.95 million with just over 2 weeks left in the campaign.

Maybe she acted too soon, you ask? 

Nah, probably not. 

It’s interesting that her campaign just didn’t quite attract the same kind of mainstream media attention that the other above 2 projects (which also had $2 million goals) did. It could be that she’s just not as popular a name as the others, and so fewer in the media cared. 

I actually only just heard about it.

The project revolved around Darci Baker, a thirty-something schoolteacher whose trip to Thailand for her sister’s wedding goes awry when she discovers her boyfriend, who was attending the wedding as well, in bed with their travel agent.

No word on whether she’ll seek other forms of financing. But this has to be somewhat of an embarrassment for her, don’t you think? It’s not like she came so close to reaching her goal; she didn’t get anywhere close to it! 

I still expect that the successes of the other 2 will encourage more *names* to take to Kickstarter to crowdfund their films, so one blip likely won’t slow down the momentum much.

Stay tuned…