Hilarie Burton Calls Candace Cameron Bure a ‘Bigot’ After Ex-Hallmark Actor Says New Network Will Focus on ‘Traditional Marriage’
Hilarie Burton is calling out Candace Cameron Bure. The One Tree Hill actor didn’t mince words after the former Hallmark Channel star said the movies at her new network, Great American Family, would focus on stories involving “traditional marriage.” On Twitter, Burton called Bure a “bigot” and a hypocrite. She also slammed Great American Media’s CEO, whom she labeled “disgusting.”
Candace Cameron Bure says Great American Family movies will focus on ‘traditional marriage’
In recent years, Hallmark has tweaked its familiar rom-com formula to make it more diverse. That includes holiday movies that don’t just focus on Christmas (the channel’s first Kwanzaa movie airs later this year), characters of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and romances that aren’t strictly heterosexual.
Great American Family launched in 2021 and has positioned itself as a rival to Hallmark. It is taking a different approach to its tales of holiday romance. Specifically, Bure says viewers shouldn’t expect to see LGBTQ relationships in its films.
“I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” the star of the upcoming movie A Christmas…Present told The Wall Street Journal.
However, Great American Media CEO Bill Abbott wasn’t quite as definitive as Bure in ruling out the possibility of seeing same-sex couples on the network.
“It’s certainly the year 2022, so we’re aware of the trends,” Abbott told the paper. “There’s no whiteboard that says, ‘Yes, this’ or ‘No, we’ll never go here.’”
Before founding Great American Media, Abbott was a top exec at Hallmark, where he worked closely with Bure. He left that company after he refused to air a 2019 ad for wedding registry site Zola that showed two women kissing.
Hilarie Burton calls Cameron Candace Bure a ‘bigot’
Like Bure, Burton has worked with Hallmark Channel in the past. In 2019, she revealed that she’d been fired from one of the network’s movies when she insisted on diverse casting. At the time, Abbott was still in charge at Hallmark.
After Bure’s comments on Great American Family’s focus on “traditional” relationships went public, Burton took to Twitter to share her thoughts.
“Bigot,” Burton tweeted. “I don’t remember Jesus liking hypocrites like Candy. But sure. Make your money, honey. You ride that prejudice wave all the way to the bank.”
“Now they’re just openly admitting their bigotry,” she wrote in another tweet. “I called this sh*t out years ago when Abbott was at Hallmark. Glad they dumped him. Being LGBTQ isn’t a ‘trend’. That guy and his network are disgusting. You too Candy. There is nothing untraditional about same-sex couples.”
The ‘Full House’ star says the team at her new network are ‘Christians that love the Lord’
For her part, Bure is unapologetic about her desire to make movies that are rooted in her faith. Her decision to move to Great American Family – where she’s taken on a leadership role – was all about ensuring her work aligned with her Christian values.
“My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning and purpose and depth behind them,” the Fuller House star said. “I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment.”
Still, she insists that viewers don’t have to be Christian to enjoy the network’s films.
“I want to be able to tell that story in a beautiful way, but also that is not off-putting to the unbeliever or someone who shares a different faith,” she said.
Whether Bure and Great American Family will be able to draw people away from Hallmark Channel with their more faith-focused programming remains to be seen. The new network has a much smaller slate of original movies than its rival. And it’s not available in all cable and TV streaming packages, leaving some would-be viewers confused about where to watch its new movies. As of now, it’s attracting a much smaller audience than Hallmark, the WSJ noted. Great American Family’s first 2022 Christmas movie attracted about 333,000 viewers, compared to 1.89 million for the film that kicked off Hallmark’s annual “Countdown to Christmas.”
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