DOWN, BUT NEVER OUT

TWO-TIME EMMY� AWARD NOMINEE AND 'GREY'S ANATOMY' STAR CHANDRA WILSON SURVIVES LIFE ON THE MEAN STREETS OF LOS ANGELES BEFORE FINDING AN 'ACCIDENTAL FRIENDSHIP,' A HALLMARK CHANNEL ORIGINAL MOVIE PREMIERING NOVEMBER 15

Tony Award� Winner Ben Vereen and Kathleen Munroe Co-Star; Based on a True Story

Two-time Emmy� nominee and SAG Award� winner Chandra Wilson ("Grey's Anatomy") stars in the true-life story of a pair of unlikely friends in "Accidental Friendship," a Hallmark Channel Original Movie, written by Humanitas Award-winning writer Anna Sandor ("My Louisiana Sky"), which premieres exclusively on the network, Saturday, November 15 (9/8 c).

In "Accidental Friendship," Wilson plays lonely, street-wise and homeless Yvonne Caldwell, a woman with good reason to be bitter. Yvonne has lost everything except her two beloved dogs, Bebe and Man-Man. With her one friend, Wes (Tony Award� winner Ben Vereen), Caldwell lives the daily struggle of being homeless in Los Angeles until a chance encounter caused by Yvonne's scruffy pups leads to a friendship with LAPD officer Tami Baumann (Kathleen Munroe, "Beautiful People"), and hope for a better life begins in earnest for Yvonne. Friendship between the two women seemed as improbable as the idea that oak trees come out of acorns. But as friendship did emerge and like that oak tree, the roots of that friendship provided a base of support and respect for Yvonne and Tami for more than five years.

In real life, Yvonne Caldwell met Officer Tami Baumann, an officer at LAPD's 77th Street Division, in 2003. It was Yvonne's three dogs that caught Tami's attention, and the overwhelming care she took of the strays. Tami, who was well-known in the department for her love of animals � and who had been finding homes for strays since she was a child � used this connection to form a bond with Yvonne.

Over time, Yvonne began to open up to Tami, relating her gradual fall into poverty, a tale of struggling with abuse and abandonment which led to a long battle with alcoholism. By mid-2001, her prized SUV was her home and only possession, but that too was taken from her when she couldn't afford the fees to release it from impound after it was stolen. Fortunately, Tami was eventually able to convince Yvonne to enter a rehab program and embark on a program designed to save her life.

"Accidental Friendship" is a Muse Entertainment & Automatic Pictures Production. Rick Rosenberg, Bob Christiansen and Lorraine Toussaint are the executive producers and Steve Solomos and Michael Prupas are the producers. Chandra Wilson is Executive Production Consultant. Don McBrearty directed from a script by Anna Sandor.

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 85 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation's leading network in providing quality family programming. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD in April, 2008.