Jennifer Love Hewitt is keeping it in the family with her upcoming Christmas movie, The Holiday Junkie.
Hewitt, 45, will star, direct and coproduce the Lifetime film, which marks her return to the network after 2010’s The Client List. The movie will also star Hewitt’s real-life husband, Brian Hallisay, as well as their three children: Autumn, Atticus, and Aidan.
The movie is inspired by Hewitt’s personal relationship with Christmas and the loss of her mother. It will follow the decorating and planning service company run by Andie (Hewitt) and her mother, Mimi. After Mimi passes away, Andie is forced to face her first Christmas without her mother and carry The Holiday Junkie torch on her own. Despite the challenges, Andie may also find some love at Christmas along the way.
The Holiday Junkie is positioned as a tentpole for Lifetime’s 2024 It’s a Wonderful Lifetime movie slate.
“To be able to direct and be in this movie with my husband is such a special opportunity,” Hewitt said in a Thursday, June 6, statement. “And to be back home with Lifetime feels as right as Christmas magic!”
EVP and Head of Programming Genres for A&E, Lifetime and LMN, Elaine Frontain Bryant, also praised Hewitt in a separate statement, writing, “Jennifer is beloved by Lifetime and our viewers. We’re excited to work with her again on this special project near and dear to her and to have it as one of our cornerstones for our It’s a Wonderful Lifetime slate.”
While this is Hewitt’s first Christmas film for Lifetime, it’s far from her first go-round with the network. The actress both headlined and produced The Client List, which sparked a spinoff series that ran for two seasons — also coproduced by Hewitt.
After briefly crossing paths on the short-lived comedy Love Bites, Hewitt and Hallisay reconnected on the set of The Client List series, which followed Hewitt’s Riley as she finds a way to provide for her family after her husband, portrayed by Hallisay, leaves her. Hewitt and Hallisay tied the knot in November 2013, welcoming daughter Autumn that same year. Atticus and Aiden arrived in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
They once again played husband and wife when Hewitt joined firefighter drama 9-1-1 as Maddie Buckley in 2018. Hallisay, meanwhile, portrayed her abusive husband, Doug. Although killed off shortly after, he’s continued to make appearances in flashbacks and dream sequences.
“It was just lovely to go to work together,” Hewitt told Entertainment Tonight Canada in 2019 of teaming up with Halliday for 9-1-1. “We both had never been able to play characters like this in our careers, these characters with dark, twisted things to them. And, so, that’s been really fun for us.”
Hewitt added that she believes she’s only become a better actress because of her husband and kids.
“I think before becoming a parent, love was something that sounded beautiful and was out there and portrayed in movies and felt at certain times when I met my husband,” she said. “Then we very quickly started having kids, and the love that I feel for the person that allowed me to have that dream in having those children and the love that you have for your children, it opens you up in a way that makes you more vulnerable than you could ever possibly imagine.”
