Is Lacey Chabert Leaving Hallmark Channel? ‘Mean Girls’ Star Has a New Netflix Christmas Movie in 2024
Is Hallmark Channel’s Christmas queen giving up her crown?
Lacey Chabert has starred in more than a dozen holiday films for the feel-good network, but in 2024, one of her new Christmas flicks has a different home – Netflix. Plus, a recent age discrimination lawsuit accuses a Hallmark exec of saying Chabert was getting too old to play the heroine in the channel’s signature rom-coms. Could the Party of Five alum really be moving on from Hallmark? Fortunately for fans, the answer seems to be no.
Lacey Chabert’s new Netflix Christmas movie premieres Nov. 13
On Oct. 23, Netflix dropped a trailer for Chabert’s new holiday movie. In Hot Frosty, she plays a widow named Kathy who falls in love with a handsome (and surprisingly buff) snowman (Dustin Milligan) who has magically come to life. The cast also includes Craig Robinson, Chrishell Stause, and Katy Mixon. It hits the streaming service on Nov. 13.
“This movie was a joy to make,” Chabert wrote when she shared the trailer (via YouTube) on her Instagram Story.
Hot Frosty is Chabert’s first movie for Netflix. But just because she’s working with the streaming service, that doesn’t mean she won’t have a presence on Hallmark this holiday season. She’s also starring alongside Kristoffer Polaha in The Christmas Quest. It premieres Sunday, Dec. 1 on Hallmark Channel.
In an Instagram post from May 2024 announcing her role in Hot Frosty, Chabert confirmed that she was still working with Hallmark. “Yes! Excited to say I’m doing both!” she wrote in response to a fan question about whether she would star in more movies for the network.
Chabert also hosts Celebrations With Lacey Chabert, an unscripted series for Hallmark+ that premiered in September 2024. The same month, she starred with Brennan Elliott in the new movie, His and Hers.
Lacey Chabert has a home at Hallmark, network says
What about recent reports that Hallmark is looking to replace Chabert and some of their other stars, such as Holly Robinson Peete, because they are too old? There’s nothing to them, the network says.
On Oct. 24, TVLine reported that a former Hallmark casting executive had filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the network. Penny Perry, 79, says she was pushed out of her role by executive vice president of programming Lisa Hamilton Daly, who said she was “too long in the tooth.” In her complaint, Perry also claims that Daly said that the network needed to think about replacing Chabert, 42, because she was “getting older,” and that Peete, 60, was “too expensive and getting too old.”
Hallmark disputes Perry’s allegations.
“Lacey and Holly have a home at Hallmark,” the company said in a statement. “We do not generally comment on pending litigation. And while we deny these outrageous allegations, we are not going to discuss an employment relationship in the media.”
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