Hallmark’s First Gay Christmas Film To Star Mean Girls Actor Jonathan Bennett And George Krissa
Image: Jonathan Bennet and George Krissa
The Hallmark Channel has just announced the next 40 Christmas movies they will be releasing this holiday season. One of these movies, The Holiday Sitter, will make Hallmark history by being the first holiday rom com to centre around a gay couple.
The Hallmark channel is known for their cheesy Christmas movies they release every year during their annual Countdown to Christmas event where they release 31 movies in the leadup to Christmas. These movies have become notorious for their formulaic stories, usually depicting two straight, white leads.
The Holiday Sitter aims to break this trend by having a gay couple as the lead characters, when they are usually resorted to being the side or background characters.
Mean Girls Star
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This movie will star Jonathan Bennett, most known for his role as heartthrob Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls’. Bennett will star alongside George Krissa, another out and proud actor in Hollywood.
Hallmark’s synopsis for the movie is “Sam is a workaholic bachelor who babysits his niece and nephew before the holidays when his sister and her husband have to go out of town. Completely out of his element, he recruits help from their handsome neighbour Jason and finds himself in an unexpected romance.”
Since starring in Mean Girls, Bennett has come out as gay and got married to presenter Jaymes Vaughan earlier this year. He has starred in other Hallmark Christmas movies, both as a lead and side character, but this will be the first time he will star as a gay lead character.
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Jonathan Bennett Was Told Not To Come Out As Gay
Bennett has stated in an interview that he was told to stay closeted while filming Mean Girls for fear of not being cast in anything else after. Most of his friends knew during filming, however he stayed in the closet until he eventually “was like, ‘Yep, I’m done. I’m over it.’ I’m like, f****** don’t cast me, I don’t care”
Bennett shared the news of him starring in this movie on his Instagram and said “Words can’t describe what it feels like to have Executive Produced and starred in such an incredible story that will mean so much to so many!”
The Holiday Sitter is set to be released on December 11, on the Hallmark Channel.
