HALLMARK MOMENTS
Canadian actor Andrew Walker to star in ‘Christmas Island’
You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: Can you please tell me how long Andrew Walker of Hallmark movies and shows has been doing them. Also, how old is he?
A: Canadian actor Walker, 44, has been acting on screen for close to 30 years and made his Hallmark debut in 2012 in “A Bride for Christmas.” He’s been in more than two dozen Hallmark productions since then, some of which don’t even involve Christmas. His latest is 2023’s “Christmas Island.” On a sort of related issue …
Q: I was wondering if Candace Cameron Bure has parted ways with Hallmark Channel movies. She did not appear in any of the 2022 Christmas movies on Hallmark.
A: Bure departed Hallmark early in 2022 to join the Great American Family as both a star and as chief content officer as the company was hiring away several Hallmark stars. GAF is run by Bill Abbott, a Hallmark executive who left the network as it was becoming more LGBTQ+ friendly; he has seemed to establish GAF as a more conservative alternative to Hallmark. Bure added to that perception, for example, by saying that GAF would “keep traditional marriage at its core.” Backlash ensued, and in an interview with Variety this year, Abbott said Bure did not speak for the network. But neither did he commit to LGBTQ+ content in the company’s films: “We’re not seeking to do anything or not do anything, and we take every day as it comes. … We’re just looking to celebrate great stories.”
Q: Is the American sitcom “Still Standing” starring Mark Addy and Jami Gertz available in any format?
A: The 2002-2006 family comedy about a working-class couple and their kids is not rerunning anywhere I know of, or on an authorized DVD. There are episodes on YouTube. By the way, the show is noteworthy as an example of what critic Lisa de Moraes dubbed male pattern optimism sitcoms — “the ones in which unattractive loser guys are married to attractive women.”