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Mario Lopez to star in the Great American Christmas lineup as part of its 5th anniversary [Image @mariolopez on Instagram]

It isn’t even summer yet, but the headlines are now revealing holiday movie news, including Mario Lopez starring in A Christmas Spark. The feel-good movie will lead the 5th anniversary of Great American Christmas.

Great American Christmas sees Mario Lopez in A Christmas Spark

Great American Media has just announced its first original film for the fifth anniversary of its Christmas lineup. Can you believe it has already been five years since many Hallmark stars jumped ship to Great American Family?

Meanwhile, Mario Lopez is set to headline the movie, titled A Christmas Spark, a festive story of a middle-aged litigator who leaves his lucrative career to become a firefighter along with other cadets half his age. Moreover, the new holiday movie will also star Ali Cobrin (The Baxters).

Ali Cobrin and Mario Lopez [Image @greatamericanfamily on Instagram]

Moreover,...

Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) and Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) are a couple of former childhood Prodigies… who might still be in love?

The duo will star in Apple TV+’s aforementioned seven-episode comedy, created, written and directed by Sharpe, who also executive-produces alongside Edebiri.

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Great American Media has announced its first original film for the fifth anniversary of its Christmas lineup.

Mario Lopez will headline A Christmas Spark, a confection about a middle-aged litigator who leaves his lucrative career to become a firefighter with other cadets half his age. It also stars Ali Cobrin (The Baxters).

The fifth anniversary of Great American Christmas will kick off on Great American Family in October and stream on Pure Flix in early November.

“The fifth Anniversary of Great American Christmas is a major milestone for our company and our audience,” said Bill Abbott, President & CEO of Great American Media. “What began as an alternative new holiday tradition has become a beloved cornerstone for viewers who want uplifting stories rooted in faith and family and marks a truly special milestone.”

“It has been a joy to produce and star in A Christmas Spark,” adds Lopez, who co-hosts Access Hollywood.

From 1993 to 1998, Jane Seymour and Joe Lando shared the small screen on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, the beloved CBS Western. The sparks were very evidently there — they dated briefly while shooting the pilot — but the two quickly realized they were meant to be lifelong friends and have remained so, through thick and thin, over the years. In 2022, the reunited for the Lifetime movie A Christmas Spark, which became one of the network’s top-rated holiday movies.

Lando, 63, shared his Pacific Palisades home with his wife, three children and daughter-in-law, two dogs (a German Shepherd named Bo and a Border Collie Lab named Rosie) and two parakeets. Like Lando, Seymour, 73, who lives not very far away in Malibu, was evacuated for the fires. She was put up by a family friend in Calabasas with whom she happens to share an ex-husband. “We raised our children together,” she says. “We have been friends since the beginning,...

Joe Lando, of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” and his family are taking shelter at his co-star Jane Seymour’s home after losing his house in the Pacific Palisades fire.

“Thankfully, there are angels in this world. We’re left with nothing, except each other. My friend Jane Seymour allowed us to come up to her house and opened it up for us without any hesitation and, thank God, gave us some place to come and sleep,” Lando said in an emotional video posted to Instagram.

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A post shared by Joe Lando (@therealjoelando)

Seymour and Lando played Michaela Quinn and Byron Sully on the CBS show, which premiered in 1993 and ran for six seasons. Years later, two also appeared together as love interests in the 2022 Lifetime movie, “A Christmas Spark.”

Lando and his family were located in the Palisades home for 22 years before the fire, according...

If Jane Seymour has her way, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman will be making rounds again.

The titular star of the circa-’90s CBS procedural is looking to revive the series. In fact, the actress-producer tells The Messenger that the potential sequel series is already “written” and “planned out.”

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And although Seymour says one unnamed network recently passed on the project...

Who wouldn't want to spend Christmas at the Chalet?

Teri Hatcher was lovely to experience in a film like this, and frankly, it's so refreshing to have films exploring women in their 50s versus the usual fare of 20s-30s.

Much like A Christmas Spark, following along with a "middle-aged" love story was most enjoyable.

It's also a sign that in all the ways the network has been diversifying its content, it's especially making some tailor-made projects that cater to the exact age demographic that likely tunes in for Lifetime and its Christmas slate most.

As a fan favorite, Teri Hatcher is a great person to helm a film like this.

She has that quirky leading woman quality that makes you always root for her, something she exuded well during her Desperate Housewives days.

In many ways, Christmas at the Chalet could've taken things further and in a different direction...

Carrie Fisher's performance as Princess Leia Organa made her a Star Wars icon, however, 10 other actors who auditioned nearly played the character instead. Many of these actors would find success in other movie and TV franchises despite not playing Leia, and even so, it's fascinating to consider how Star Wars may have changed forever if someone else had embodied the character. It's hard to imagine Leia without Carrie Fisher, especially after she defined the character for 40 years before her passing. Still, just like the popularity of what-if scenarios in Star Wars fiction, alternatives to the franchise's real-life history are just as fun to explore.

As a central character of the Skywalker saga, having Leia played by another actor may very well have changed the franchise's direction. The chemistry between characters can shape where the writers will take the story, and with the wide variety of talent that auditioned for Leia,...

Here is a wrap-up of all the news you need to know from Wednesday, April 26, 2023.

Apple TV+ today debuted the trailer for "Platonic, the upcoming 10-episode comedy series starring and executive produced by Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen and co-created, directed, and co-written by Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco.

The half-hour comedy will make its global debut with the first three episodes on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, on Apple TV+, followed by new episodes weekly, every Wednesday.

Platonic follows a platonic pair of former best friends approaching midlife (Rogen and Byrne) who reconnect after a long rift.

The duo's friendship becomes all-consuming—and destabilizes their lives in a hilarious way.

In addition to Rogen and Byrne, the ensemble cast includes Luke Macfarlane, Tre Hale, Andrew Lopez, and Carla Gallo.

Platonic is produced by Sony Pictures Television, where Stoller's Global Solutions has an overall deal. Byrne, Rogen, Stoller, Delbanco and Conor Welch executive produce.

Exclusive: Toni Braxton is extending her decade-long relationship with Lifetime and A+E. The Grammy-winning singer, actress, executive producer and entrepreneur has entered into a production deal, in which her Braxtoni Productions will oversee and executive produce multiple projects for the network. The production company will be headquartered at Lifetime’s LA offices.

Lifetime and Braxton have had a long history of collaboration with Braxton most recently executive producing the movie, A Christmas Spark featuring the on-screen reunion of Jane Seymour and Joe Lando and the two films under the Fallen Angels Murder Club banner which Braxton starred in and executive produced in 2022. Braxton previously starred in, and executive produced the Lifetime movies Faith Under Fire with EP Td Jakes (2018), Everyday is Christmas (2018), Twist of Faith (2013), and her Lifetime biopic, Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart (2016).

“We are thrilled to continue our long-standing relationship with Toni and continue to have her...

Lifetime has an early Christmas present for fans of CBS’ long-running Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Jane Seymour is set to reunite with Dr. Quinn costar Joe Lando (aka Sully) in the made-for-tv Christmas movie A Christmas Spark.

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Hailing from executive producer Toni Braxton, A Christmas Spark follows Seymour’s recently widowed Molly, who has “lost her zest for life and given...