I always enjoy it when a celebrity or company is revealed to be trash through a specific incident and then other celebrities and famous people come forward, with receipts, to prove this. Such is the case with the Hallmark channel, which recently pulled some sweet ads for the company Zola featuring a lesbian couple getting married and kissing at the altar. As Kaiser reported, the company which protested this very benign ad was the group 1 Million Moms, which has all of 4,239 followers on Twitter. Hallmark caved to this not at all influential (not that it would make a difference) hate group. They eventually reinstated the ads, but only after a ton of backlash, calls for a boycott and Zola vowing to no longer advertise with them. Now Hilarie Burton, who stars in the very cute and actually diverse Lifetime movie A Christmas Wish (I watched it, Pam Grier has a major role and one of the lead character’s brothers has a husband and it’s treated as matter-of-fact), has some receipts about Hallmark. Here are her tweets, in order, about her sh-tty experience with them asking for more diversity and being completely shut down.
Just going through some old emails from a #Hallmark job I was “let go” from back in January. I had insisted on a LGBTQ character, an interracial couple and diverse casting. I was polite, direct and professional. But after the execs gave their notes on the script and NONE of my Requests were honored, I was told “take it or leave it”.
I left it. And the paycheck. Shitty being penalized for standing up for inclusivity. I really wanted that job. It was close to my house. It paid really well. It was about the military, which you all know I hold dear. But?
Id walk away again in a heartbeat. The bigotry comes from the top and permeates the whole deal over there. I’ve been loudly cheering for @lifetimetv all year because they heard my concerns + RALLIED! You want inclusive Christmas magic?! We got it.
Love is love🏳️🌈🎄💖 #receiptsKey point here: I have a wonderful husband @JDMorgan who works his ass off so I have the luxury to choose morals over paying bills. Not everyone has that! Nor should we be forced to be dependent. If I had to cover our mortgage and was told “take it or leave it”, I’d be f-ked.
Hilarie didn’t even plug her movie! Watch A Christmas Wish. They also make fun of romance movie tropes, like how cute meets can be annoying, and how the guys in romcoms can seem like stalkers.
Given the fact that Hilarie got fired, as a white woman, for asking about diversity, can you imagine what people of color go through? We just heard about Gabrielle Union’s experience with at America’s Got Talent with NBC. The Hallmark movies are SO WHITE and so straight. It’s very noticeable and I’m not surprised that Hilarie had this experience with them. Watch Lifetime movies! Seriously #BoycottHallmark, their movies are cardboard cutout of romances anyway.
Titles Featuring Lesbians Joyfully Existing And Also It’s Christmas Can We Just Let People Love Who They Love
🎥 Let It Snow
📺 Merry Happy Whatever— Netflix US (@netflix) December 15, 2019
Guess I’m not getting hired to write my holiday movie, Jingle Belles: Lesbians At Competing Christmas Tree Farms Fall In Love.
— Emily Andras (@emtothea) December 14, 2019
photos credit: WENN and Avalon.red
