Jodie Sweetin says she’s “surprised” and “disappointed” her latest film was picked up by Great American Family, the network where her former Full House co-star promised they would “keep traditional marriage at the core.”
After soundly criticizing the Great American Family channel over the holidays following comments by Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin is lamenting that her new movie just landed there.
Speaking to People, Sweetin said she was both “surprised” and “disappointed” that Craft Me a Romance was sold to her former Full House co-star’s network after she criticized Bure’s comments over the holiday that GAF would “keep traditional marriage at the core.”
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This was Bure’s response to the Hallmark Channel featuring its first holiday movie with a gay couple in the lead for the 2022 holiday season.
Like Sweetin, Bure had long been a staple of holiday and other light romantic films on Hallmark Channel. Bure is now Chief Creative Officer at Great American Family and features in films on the more “traditional” network.
“My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning and purpose and depth behind them,” Bure told The Wall Street Journal in November 2022. “I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment
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“Sometimes, we, as actors, don’t have control over which network buys the projects we are in, nor are we a part of the process in which they get sold,” Sweetin told People. “So I was very surprised to learn by reading about it in the press yesterday that the independent film I worked on over a year ago was sold to Great American Family.”
“I am disappointed,” she continued, “but in keeping with my mission of supporting the LGBTQ+ family, any potential or future money made from this sale will be donated to LGBTQ+ organizations.”
Shortly After Bure’s “traditional marriage” comments last year, new CEO Bill Abbott, who formerly headed Hallmark Channel, said of same-sex stories, “It’s certainly the year 2022, so we’re aware of the trends. There’s no whiteboard that says, ‘Yes, this’ or ‘No, we’ll never go here.'”
There were no same-sex relationships on GAF during the 2022 holiday season of films, nor have there been any since those comments. Sweetin, meanwhile, has been a staunch ally of the LGTBQIA+ community for years.
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“I’ve always tried to fight for equality and love for everyone,” she told ET in December 2022. “I feel like if you have a voice and you have a platform, it is incumbent on you to be loud and use it.”
Sweetin also showed support for JoJo Siwa calling Bure’s words “rude and hurtful,” and shared posts about the Respect of Marriage Act, and a video featuring a man criticizing those who believe Jesus “condemned” homosexuality.
Sweetin and Siwa weren’t the only ones expressing their distaste for the comments made by Bure. One of the network’s more prominent male leads, Neal Bledsoe, jumped ship “until everyone can be represented in their films with pride.”
Sweetin’s Craft Me a Romance is set to premiere in September as part of GAF’s Great Autumn Slate, which includes seven new films. The film, which features Sweetin as a small business owner facing off against Brent Bailey as a fierce competitor, also features Maxwell Caulfield and Julie Brown.
