(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Hallmark Channel’s Official YouTube Account)
Openly gay actor Jonathan Bennett—best known for his role as Aaron Samuels, the male lead in the 2004 hit Mean Girls—has a new gay rom-com movie titled The Holiday Sitter (2022, Ali Liebert).
In The Holiday Sitter, Bennett plays the gay uncle named Sam who has to babysit his niece and nephew for the holidays, but alas, his babysitting skills were next to nothing! But thanks to their handsome neighbor Jason (played by actor George Krissa), he might just get through the task, and maybe, just maybe, he might also find love while they are at it.
In an interview with Deadline, Bennett tells them, “We’re doing all the classic things that we love in Hallmark movies.” He added:
“We’re doing the tropes that we’ve come to love and expect from watching Hallmark movies. We’re just turning up the comedy and having two men as the leads instead of the classic straight couple. The audience is going to see two men meet and fall for each other in the exact same way that a man and a woman meet and fall for each other. That’s literally the only difference with The Holiday Sitter. It’s based in love.”
Jonathan Bennett also starred as a married gay man named Brandon Mitchell in Hallmark movies before. There was the 2020 Christmas-themed comedy-drama titled The Christmas House (Michael Grossman) and its subsequent sequel The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls (2021, Rich Newey).
But even though Hallmark featured same-sex couples before, according to Hallmark Media’s Executive Vice President Lisa Hamilton Daly, it’s the first time for them to have a movie wherein a gay couple was the primary focus.
“We felt that it was time for a story with a gay couple,” says Daly to Deadline. It was reportedly Daly who signed Bennett to “an exclusive, multi-picture deal” way back in April. “We are really trying to make it so that everybody sees themselves when they tune in. We are trying to stay true to the Hallmark brand values, one of which is inclusiveness. It’s true of Hallmark cards, which has a card for every kind of occasion. In the past, there was a focus on one particular kind of love story, and I think everybody thought, ‘wow, we’re not telling the whole story here.’” For more information on the film, read here.
The official blurb of the film reads: “Sam babysits his niece and nephew before the holidays, and when he recruits help from their handsome neighbor Jason, he finds himself in an unexpected romance.”
The Holiday Sitter also stars Donia Kash as Billie, Matthew James Dowden as Nate Walker, Nathan Parrott as Declan, Todd Matthews as Dr. Vance, and Amy Goodmurphy as Ellie to name a few.
The Holiday Sitter will air this Sunday, December 11, on The Hallmark Channel. You can watch the trailer below:
Happy viewing!
Trite doesn’t make it right!
Same, exacting plot with exactly the same stylized characters!
Love regardless of plausibility or logic?
And,
it continues…Art as interesting, exciting and meaningful as the very audience who will eat it up!
then Luke MacFarlane should star in a gay-themed movie for Hallmark too? he’s already a major player in their movies (as straight)
Are straight audiences really gonna watch it?
The “Liberals” certainly will!
But,
the rest of “Straight Mankind” will not know of its existence!
I don’t think homo-ism comports with conservatism anyway.
Liberals who are pro-LGTBQ+ as well as Conservatives who are pro-LGTBQ+ will watch. The rest will pass. Being Liberal or Conservative in 2022 guarantees nothing about how they feel with same sex relationships. “The Community” needs to start promoting the fact that where one is Politically guarantees nothing about where one feels on LGTBQ+ persons.
Same thing, baby, same thing, just said differently, however one wants to express it.
Gay people aren’t going to watch that movie because we all know gay movies suck.
Well, I out-grew the Hallmark station, it seems too hokey- like the shit in the “50’s family programming” or even, like “Friends”, etc. Being that it’s taking place-shot in; as a NYC story; I guess it won’t be whitewashed of its populous of color?
Hallmark is now on board with the concept of Gay characters because there’s revenue to be had. “We felt that it was time…” said the Hallmark Media Executive (…marketing ….$$$ …. revenue.).Well “hooray!” for Hallmark showing up at the “inclusiveness” party in 2022 (almost 2023).
We’ll hit the “inclusiveness” day when doing so no longer big deal when we have to point out that two Gay guys meet “just like a Straight couple.” Until then, it’s “division” between anyone LGTBQ+ and Straights..
Someday, ‘it’ gay anything, won’t be profitable, yeah, I hear you. It will, be “normalized” as it once was in every walk of life, before the weaponizing of religion. See, the change has indeed, already happened . . . there’s just those who wish to return to . . . across the board period.
so can i TOUCH him yet, honey? Jonathan SO HOTT! ♥
I really enjoyed this movie but felt it was just a bit too comical at times. I have always felt that the Hallmark channel has never been any good when it comes to representing the African American, Hispanic, Native American or LGBTQ communities in their movies or series. Now that they are finally realizing it’s no longer going to be tolerated, it’s a bit too little too late and I’m not going to come on board with their desperate attempt to build its minority viewership when there are several other channels on cable that have always shown a much stronger… Read more »
Beautiful, just so honest, kudos!
It was your typical Hallmark movie. At least they had two gay actors in the lead roles, not two straight guys doing “gay for pay”
“Gay-For-Pay”?
Ever watch the porn titled, “Gay For Pay”?