A ROYAL CHRISTMAS: A Fairy Tale Holiday Story

Press Release

As the only daughter of an expert tailor in Philadelphia, Emily Corrigan (Lacey Chabert from Party of Five and Mean Girls) is a kindhearted young woman proud of her blue-collar background. She is a devoted seamstress at the family business and madly in love with her doting European boyfriend, Leo (Irish actor Stephen Hagan). But as their first Christmas together approaches, Leo drops a bombshell on his unsuspecting girlfriend: he is actually Prince Leopold, heir to the throne of Cordinia, a small sovereign country. Emily is in shock, but her love for Leo trumps her hesitation about his double life and they quickly fly to Cordinia to spend the holidays with Leo’s disapproving mother, Queen Isadora (Jane Seymour of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman fame).

Less than enthusiastic about her son’s relationship with a commoner, Isadora makes Emily feel anything but welcome at their grand castle, leaving Emily to feel more at home among Isadora’s staff of butlers and housemaids. As Emily struggles to adapt to her new royal surroundings, the situation is made more difficult when a scheming Isadora invites Duchess Natasha (Katherine Flynn, Jane Seymour’s real-life daughter), Leo’s ex-girlfriend, to join them for Christmas. Emily sees that Natasha is a perfect match for Leo and worries she’ll never measure up to Isadora’s standards. Attempting to stay true to herself in a world where she clearly doesn’t belong, Emily wonders if love is enough to keep her newly royal relationship from falling apart before Christmas morning.

Preview

Following in the path of movies like The Prince and Me and A Princess for Christmas and to a certain extent What a Girl Wants and The Princess Diaries, the new Hallmark Channel holiday movie A Royal Christmas captures the feel of the small town girl ending up in a castle in a never-before-heard-of sovereign country hidden away somewhere in Europe, learning how to break herself of her ‘crass’ American ways to win or keep the heart of the handsome young prince.

A Royal Christmas has its pre-requisite pretty couple in Emily Corrigan (Chabert), a seamstress from South Philadelphia [a skill that will come in very handy later in the film], and her recently graduated with an MBA boyfriend Leo James (Hagan). It also has the doting father, Bud Corrigan (Mitchell Mullen), the cool best friend [and Emily’s roommate] Toni (Katrina Nare) and, of course, the disapproving mother (Seymour), who just happens to be Isadora, Queen of Cordinia, Leo’s mother.

The revelation made by Leo to Emily that he is actually Prince Leopold of Cordinia, a small sovereign country in France, brings about a culture shock trip home for the holidays. Emily, of course, is overwhelmed by the opulence of Leo’s “home”, the very icy welcome made by Queen Isadora and the trappings of that world.

Emily is also introduced to Natasha, the Duchess of Warren (Flynn), who is Queen Isadora’s preferred choice for Leo, as they have been friends since childhood; and she becomes friendly with the staff, including head butler Victor (Simon Dutton), lady’s maid Olivia (Diana Dumitrescu) and footman Will (Vlad Ianus), the latter of which is frowned upon by the royals.

In a recent interview with Jane Seymour, she shared her thoughts on Queen Isadora, saying “It was so much fun. Ultimately what I loved about the character was that there was a reason why she was mean. She’d made some choices in her own life that she felt she had to make for duty, and she resented not having the one thing she’s trying to stop her son from having, which is real love.”

While the story plays out in typical fashion with Emily attempting to fit in while still being herself and then working against Queen Isadora (to a certain extent) to prove that she can fit into Leo’s world, this holiday film feels very familiar [i.e., the movies referenced above]. But these facts don’t necessarily take away from the film.

It does have its lighter moments with Leo and Emily trying to make the guards outside the castle break a smile, Emily quickly becoming friends with a little orphan girl named Poppy (Alice O’Mahoney) [who gets her own special princess story, which won’t be spoiled (too much) here] and eventually the film ends in true princess style with…well, watch the film to see what happens.

It should also be noted that Jane Seymour’s sister Anne Gould makes an appearance in the film, playing Sister Agnes, who runs the orphanage where Poppy lives.

A Royal Christmas, one of the 12 new holiday movies from the Hallmark Channel, will debut on Saturday, November 22 at 8/7c.

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