Jonathan Bent on Hallmark's gay Christmas movie The Holiday Ster |

Contents:

• JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER
• HALLMARK PREMIER S FIRST LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVIE WH A GAY LEAD UPLE
• MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI
• THE HALLMARK CHANNEL'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE STARS 'MEAN GIRLS' JONATHAN BENT

JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER

In the movie, which buts Sunday, Bent plays Sam, a gay guy whose personal life suffers at the st of his profsnal life — work over marriage. '" Add to the formula the actor's love of the '80s classic Uncle Buck starrg John Candy, pl his sire to see a movie that was "really thentic to what 's like beg a gay man 2022. " And that turned to me and my love for Uncle Buck, the movie wh John Candy that I grew up on, and I kd of put those ias together and I said, "What if Uncle Buck was gay?

Sam is beg really thentic to what 's like beg a gay man 2022 and what that experience is. As gay men, we're navigatg what our liv look like wh kids, or gettg married, or whout kids, and 's not black or whe — there's so many different avenu to startg a fay and havg a chosen fay. Somethg I found so funny is how Sam realiz that Jason is gay — when Jason ments on Sam's sho.

HALLMARK PREMIER S FIRST LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVIE WH A GAY LEAD UPLE

Like, "Oh wow, he is gay. For Lifetime, which last year had “The Christmas Setup, ” the channel’s first-ever movie starrg gay leads, the move was a big one: the premiere of “Unr the Christmas Tree, ” s first movie featurg lbians as the uple at the center of a holiday romance.

Meanwhile, Hallmark ma a smaller step by settg “The Christmas Hoe 2: Deck Those Halls, ” a sequel to 2020’s “The Christmas Hoe, ” which featured Jonathan Bent and Brad Harr as a gay uple lookg to adopt. The dispary between the extents to which the Christmas-obssed ble channels are focg on LGBTQ holiday ntent 2021 is nsistent wh their rpective cisns ma on the matter last year, when Lifetime st a gay uple as leads “The Christmas Setup” and Hallmark featured s first homosexual uple as part of an ensemble “The Christmas Hoe. “Even though we’ve got ‘Unr the Christmas Tree, ’ which is a real highlight, we’ve got several others the mix that are clive, whether they’re gay upl or jt characters, we’ve been tryg to make sure that people are reprented across the board, ” Lifetime head of programmg Amy Wter told TheWrap durg an Oct.

MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI

When “The Christmas Setup, ” Lifetime’s first-ever movie starrg gay leads, played by married--real-life uple Ben Lewis and Blake Lee, buted last year, Wter told TheWrap she had been lookg for a project starrg LGBTQ leads for some time, but was very agast somethg “really sacchare. “The fact that big Hallmark — the greetg-rd divisn — overturned Bill Abbott’s cisn on the Zola ad shows that the pany is ser about diversy their mographics, and we’re seeg lots of baby steps the 2020 and 2021 movi wh gay and lbian B-stori.

(Durg the Abbott era, spottg a queer uple was like tryg to fd a gay character a 1940s movie that somehow slipped past the Productn Co.

The new, LGBTQ+ holiday films and seri are gog to make the yuleti hella gay this holiday season! Drama and secrets get exposed this brand new, queer-clive fay saga that featur a gay uple played by Broadway actor/photographer Anthony Chatmon II and out mol Derek Chadwick! Nonbary actor Hugh Sheridan is takg on their first gay role, playg the happily married David alongsi hubby (played by Nicholas Brown) the Asie Christmas rom- Christmas on the Farm!

THE HALLMARK CHANNEL'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE STARS 'MEAN GIRLS' JONATHAN BENT

Directed by Tony wner Michael Mayer and starrg a stacked st that clus Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, Le MacFarlane, Barry Bostwick, Jennifer Robertson, and edy screen legends Jennifer Coolidge and Kathy Najimy, Sgle All the Way is Netflix's highly-anticipated, first gay holiday film and tells the story of a gay man named Peter who is "sperate to avoid his fay's judgment about his perpetual sgle stat, " acrdg to the film's official (and relatable AF) scriptn. Emmy-wng TV in and Drag Race legend RuPl is gettg on all of the gay cheer this year by releasg her very own special holiday special for VH1, aptly entled The Bch Who Stole Christmas! Tellg the story of the Diaz fay, the seri featur a gay uple, as well as one of the first transgenr love stori to ever be featured a holiday rom-!

Part of the Hallmark Channel's imprsive and packed slate of 41 brand-new Christmas movi beg released this holiday season, the upg sequel to last year's gay-clive The Christmas Hoe, tentatively entled Deck Those Halls, is rng the origal st for another round of queer holiday cheer, cludg Mean Girls alum Jonathan Bent and Brad Harr, the two actors who played the loveable hband-hband duo the first movie. This year, the channel cid to diversify s sts by featurg s first openly gay lead uple.