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PREVIOUSLY RELEASED                      CONTACT:            Pam Slay, 818.755.2480

September 30, 2002                                                   Sheri Goldberg, 818.755.1225

LAUREN HOLLY, JUDD NELSON, NICK STABILE AND GEORGE WALLACE STAR  IN ‘SANTA JR.,’

TWO-HOUR, ORIGINAL MOVIE

PRODUCED EXCLUSIVELY FOR HALLMARK CHANNEL

Lauren Holly, Judd Nelson, Nick Stabile and George Wallace headline the ensemble cast for “Santa Jr.,” a light-hearted two-hour romantic comedy airing  exclusively on Hallmark Channel, Wednesday, November 29 (9/8c) with encore airings Saturday, December 2 (3/2c), Saturday, December 9 (11am/10c) and Saturday, December 23 at 5/4c and 11/10c.

“Santa Jr.,” written by Marc Hershon, is a contemporary romantic romp pitting Santa’s devilishly handsome twenty-something son (Stabile) against the grinches of holiday spirit.  All the while, Santa Jr. suffers his own indignations, including being falsely incarcerated for breaking into homes and stealing Christmas presents.  Christmas in southern California is put on hold until everyone – including Santa’s son – learns what Christmas is really all about.

Lauren Holly stars as Susan Folleto, a public defender struggling to believe in both love and a kid named Kris Kringle, Jr., a holiday non-believer who swears he’s the son of Santa.  Ms. Holly, currently stars as Jenny Shepard on the CBS hit series, “Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Judd Nelson stars as Darryl Bedford, a San Diego plainclothes detective who is more than convinced that Kris Kringle is just another cleverly disguised cat burglar out to play his girlfriend - Kringle’s lawyer (Holly) – for a fool.  Mr. Nelson is one of

Hollywood’s busiest actors.  Milestones include “The Breakfast Club,” “St. Elmo’s Fire” and four seasons in the popular sitcom “Suddenly Susan.”

Nick Stabile plays Saint Nick’s fun-loving son who doesn’t yet see himself as the heir to the spirit of Christmas. 

Comedian George Wallace plays Norm Potter, Darryl’s police partner with a heart of holiday gold.

 “Santa Jr.” is executive produced by Robert Halmi, Jr., Larry Levinson at Alpine Productions with Steven W. Bridgewater and Brian Gordon producing.

          Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 75 million subscribers.  The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,300 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country.  Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Total Day and Prime Time household ratings and is the nation’s leading network in providing family-friendly programming.  Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel.

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