Jennifer Love Hewitt is known for fan-favorite ’90s flicks like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Can’t Hardly Wait and drama series like Ghost Whisperer and The Client List, but now she’s making her debut in an annual tradition: the Lifetime Christmas movie.
Not only is the actress starring in the network’s newest title The Holiday Junkie, which premieres tonight, December 14 at 8pm Eastern Time on Lifetime, but she also directed and executive produced the festive film. And Hewitt has not one but two personal connections to the feel-good movie: it sees her act opposite her real-life husband Brian Hallisay, and it reportedly helped her deal with her own grief from losing her mother.
Per Lifetime, the official synopsis for The Holiday Junkie reads: “Andie and her mother Mimi run a company called The Holiday Junkie, a decorating and planning service for all holiday needs. But after Mimi passes away, Andie is forced to face her first Christmas without her mother and carry The Holiday Junkie torch all on her own. Despite the challenges, Andie may also find some love at Christmas along the way!” Along with Hewitt as Andie and hubby Brian as her onscreen love interest Mason, the cast also features Kristin Chenoweth, Lynn Andrews, Greg Grunberg and Debra Christofferson.
In a new interview with What to Watch, Hewitt talked about being able channel her real-life grief into The Holiday Junkie: “I just think it’s kismet. I just think it’s perfect timing. My mom was a big perfect-timing person, and I look at it as like, this is the one I was meant to do.”
“I know even 12 years past losing [my mom] now, every Christmas is hard for me. I have that moment or moments where it breaks my heart that she’s not here to meet my kids or join in cookie-making with us or something. So, I wanted those people to be seen. And Brian’s character in the movie is having grief as well, but it’s the loss of a love and a wedding,” Hewitt said. “We really wanted to tell a full story for everyone who might feel joy and pain at Christmas.”
To tune into the premiere of The Holiday Junkie tonight at 8pm, you’re going to need access to Lifetime. hose with cable packages can watch on their local Lifetime channel, but even if you don’t have traditional cable, cord-cutters can also tune in online with a live TV streaming service that carries Lifetime, such as Frndly TV, Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and Philo TV. And if you miss the television broadcast tonight, The Holiday Junkie will also be available to stream on MyLifetime.com beginning tomorrow, Sunday, December 15.