HispanicBusiness

Roberts, ‘Having a Safe Place to Call Home Strengthens Families, Communities and Our Nation as a Whole;’h Actress Meets with Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Shriver to Find Truth to the Real-Life Plight of America’s homeless

Network and ‘Our House’ Stars Pledge Movie Promotion Will Be Used to Raise National Awareness of Chronic Homelessness








Los Angeles, CA--(HISPANIC PR WIRE)--March 6, 2006--Five-time Emmy(R) Award winner Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) and “Scrubs” star Judy Reyes portray a wealthy widow and a homeless woman who each discover a life worth living in Hallmark Channel’s Original movie “Our House,” which premieres March 2006.

When Doris Roberts was filming “Our House,” she made a promise to herself to learn something about the real-life plight of America’s 3 ½ million homeless people and to use every promotional opportunity for the film to create awareness on their behalf.

This week, Roberts sat down with Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem and homeless advocate Bobby Shriver and Corporation for Supportive Housing’s President and CEO, Carla Javits, and Director/CSH Jonathan Hunter to see what the average American can do to help.h What Roberts discovered was eye-opening.

“The first thing Americans have to do is to get angry that there are millions of people whose home address is NOWHERE,” said Roberts.

Roberts continues, “This is not about behavior – it’s about housing.h Unlike our pursuits to research cancer and AIDS, delivering a cure for homelessness is here today by building permanent supportive housing.”

The “Our House” storyline was profoundly important to Roberts, who found inspiration for her character portrayal in the writings of her late husband, author William Goyen. “He wrote that, when we see infirm or handicapped or older people, or the homeless, we tend to turn away,” Roberts said.h “We shun them and we take away their light.”

That passage struck a chord with Roberts, who convinced the “Our House” filmmakers to include Goyen’s poignant words into the script. “It’s something my character says, quoting her late husband,” the actress said.h It is Roberts’ hope that, just as her character does, people who view the film will be inspired to offer hope to those who may have lost it, not to turn away.

“Having a safe place to call home strengthens families, communities, and the nation as a whole,” Roberts says.

When Roberts’ character, Ruth Galloway, attempts suicide after the death of her husband, a chance encounter with Billy (Reyes), a homeless woman who rescues Ruth from a pill overdose, helps each woman discover a life worth living.

Ruth is intrigued by Billy, whose life is vastly different from her own.h Although Billy is at first resistant to accepting aid, she eventually opens up and helps Ruth understand — just as Goyen understood— that many of the homeless are regular people who merely have fallen on hard times or endured crippling personal tragedies.h To the dismay of her daughter and neighbors, Ruth is inspired by Billy and opens up the mansion to many more who are homeless.

“Our House” is an Alpine Medien Production in association with Larry Levinson Productions.h Robert Halmi, Jr. and Larry Levinson are executive producers.h Nick Lombardo and Amy Goldberg are co-executive producers. Randy Pope and Lincoln Lageson are co-producers.h “Our House” was directed by Mark Griffiths and written by Michael Lach.

Hallmark Channel is a 24-hour basic cable channel that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of more than 72 million subscribers.h The program service is distributed through more than 5,300 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country.h Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel.h Through its subsidiary, Crown Media Distribution, LLC, Crown also distributes titles from its award-winning collection of movies, miniseries and films for exhibition in a variety of television media including broadcast, cable, Video-on-Demand and High Definition Television.

For photos, please contact Francisco Ochoa, Executive in Charge of Photo, at franciscoochoa@hallmarkchannel.com or 818.755.2682.

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