SONIA BRAGA AND TONY PLANA LEAD THE DYNAMIC CAST OF PERFORMERS IN "MEDDLING MOM," A HALLMARK CHANNEL ORIGINAL MOVIE FOR MOTHER'S DAY 2013

Film Begins Production Today

Sonia Braga ("Angel Eyes," "Páginas Da Vida") and Tony Plana ("Desperate Housewives," "Ugly Betty") lead a long list of dynamic performers who begin production today on "Meddling Mom," a two-hour Hallmark Channel Original Movie slated for World Premiere on Mother's Day 2013. Joining Braga and Plana are Mercedes Renard ("NCIS"), Ana Ayora ("Marley & Me," "Phoenix Falling"), Saundra Santiago ("One Life to Live," "The Sopranos"), Rose Abdoo ("2 Broke Girls," "Gilmore Girls"), George Contreras ("The O.C."), Rafael Amaya ("Doctor Mateo," "Ugly Betty"), Rob Mayes ("Jane By Design") and John Nielsen ("Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen").

Take Carmen Vega downtown and book her! Carmen is guilty as charged of slipping into daughter Yolanda's and son-in-law Rico's home to leave behind "How to" and "When to" books on baby-making, of manipulating youngest daughter Ally into a doomed relationship with best friend Marisol's son Pablo ("the lawyer"), and of getting Ally's real boyfriend pulled off an important account. She is generally guilty of getting into every other family member's social life, except her own. Now Carmen Vega, notorious mother of good intentions, but with equally hideous results, is about to get a crash course in butting out!

Just as her family believes Carmen's making progress, she finds out that she is going to be a grandmother - finally! Yolanda and Ally can only shake their heads when they hear Carmen has already purchased furniture for the nursery and picked out names. Will Carmen ever learn her lesson? Cuando las ranas críen pelo!

"Meddling Mom" was written by Nina Weinman from a story by Paul Longo. Frank Konigsberg, Patricia Clifford and Iris Dugow are Executive Producers. Kyle Clark and Lina Wong are Co-Executive Producers. Eileen Fields produces. Patricia Cardosa directs ("Real Women Have Curves").

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 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through approximately 5,492 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 daytime original programming 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.