"MAD MEN" STAR AND TWO-TIME SAG AWARD-WINNER KIERNAN SHIPKA JOINS EMMY(R) AWARD NOMINEE KELLIE MARTIN AND SIMON KASSIANIDES IN "SMOOCH," A HALLMARK CHANNEL ORIGINAL MOVIE WORLD PREMIERE FEBRUARY 5

Loosely Based on the Brothers Grimm Short Story The Frog King

Two-time SAG Award-winning actor Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper, "Mad Men") stars with Emmy(R) nominee Kellie Martin ("Life Goes On") and Simon Kassianides ("Quantum of Solace") in "Smooch," a Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premiere, Saturday, February 5 (9 p.m. ET/PT, 8C). The movie is an updated loosely-based, live-action homage to the Brothers Grimm short story -- The Frog King -- in which a hapless Prince is turned into a frog by a witch's cruel charm. He must convince a Princess to take him home and treat him like a king. Reluctantly, she does, and on the third day, the Princess awakens to find that her kindness has transformed the frog into a handsome Prince, and the pair lives happily ever after.

In "Smooch," Shipka plays "Zoe," a young girl obsessed by fairytales and happy endings who is searching for the perfect man for her widowed mother Gwen (Martin). It is Zoe's belief in a frog's potential charm that compels her to abduct one from her middle school science class, carrying him to Golden Gate Park in a water-filled lunchbox where she intends to set him free. Having skipped class, Zoe is surprised to see another schoolmate at the park, and in her anxiety, accidentally loses her green friend into a pond. As she surveys the scene, a male monarch (Kassianides) in full royal regalia and who was mugged the night before, appears in a dinghy. The dazed prince, sporting a goose egg on his head, has little memory of who he is or how he got into such a predicament. But he is in luck. Zoe knows precisely how this fairytale ends.

"Smooch" is produced by Beantown Ranch Entertainment in association with Silver Screen Pictures. Howard Burkonsand Brenda Friend arethe executive producers. Robert Bloomingdale,Kyle Clark and Lina Wongare co-executive producers. Rick Arredondo is the producer. Ron Oliver directed from a script written by Howard Burkonsand Terry Spencer Hesser.

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 available in high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) to a national audience of 87.5 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 is the nation's leading network in quality family programming with an ambitious slate of original TV movies, lifestyle and general entertainment content, and is the home of "The Martha Stewart Show", which anchors the channel's new daytime HOME block. Hallmark Channel's sibling network is Hallmark Movie Channel, also available in HD and SD, which focuses on the family-friendly movies with a mix of classic theatrical films, presentations from the acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame library, original Hallmark Channel movies and special events.