Lacey Chabert Took A Shot At Candace Cameron Bure After Her Hallmark Exit

Lacey Chabert is no longer one of the "Mean Girls." Now, as the unofficial Queen of Hallmark, the actor's goal is to make viewers feel nothing but nice. (Save for the anger they experience when a grown-up mean girl fires the heroine, forcing her to move back to her quaint, Christmas-obsessed hometown in the heartland. There, she winds up under the mistletoe with her childhood sweetheart, who now sells Christmas trees for a living.) 

Speaking to The Oakland Press of the cinematic universe where homemade baked goods and hot cocoa abound, Chabert said, "People say the movies are 'comfort food for the soul.' I'm proud to be part of something that's uplifting and adds a little goodness into the world." And she's done a lot of uplifting, with starring roles in more than 30 Hallmark movies.

For a while, it seemed Hallmark had the market cornered on movies set in cozy bed and breakfasts. But then Crown Media Family Networks CEO Bill Abbott left Hallmark Channel's parent company and helped launch the Great American Family Channel (GAC). One of Hallmark's other most prolific actors, Candace Cameron Bure, followed him there, and offered an explanation for her exit that didn't go over so well with some Hallmark actors. "It basically is a completely different network than when I started because of the change of leadership," Bure told The Wall Street Journal. And Chabert was one of the network's stars who had something to say about Bure's criticism of the network's evolution.

In a 2022 interview with Variety, Lacey Chabert confirmed Candace Cameron Bure's claim that there had been some changes over at the Hallmark Channel, but they weren't of the variety that could be attributed to one of the network's villainous corporate exec characters.

"Any shift I've felt has been embracing our creative ideas," Chabert said. As for her thoughts on the exodus of Bure and other ex-Hallmark stars — including Danica McKellar, Jesse Metcalfe, Chad Michael Murray, and Lori Loughlin — to the Great American Family Channel, Chabert didn't go full-on Regina George by telling Bure to stop trying to make GAC happen. Instead, she took a more diplomatic approach when asked about the situation. "You know what, I wish everybody the best. I really can't comment on it further other than I care about everybody involved," she said.

Over at GAC, Bure was offered a role developing the network's programming, and Chabert has been given a more expansive role at Hallmark, as well. She has executive produced multiple movies, including the "Wedding Veil" series, and she even helped come up with the concept for the 2021 film "Sweet Carolina." She told Vulture, "I'm able to be more of who I am here than possibly anywhere else I've worked." Unsurprisingly, she has no plans to make the move to GAC herself. "I see myself being a lifer as long as I'm inspired by the stories," she said of her wholesome Hallmark home.

When Candace Cameron Bure spoke to The Wall Street Journal in 2022, the Hallmark Channel was preparing to air its first movie centered on a gay couple, "The Holiday Sitter." Bure hinted that she had an issue with the network's decision to include same-sex couples in its programming when she said, "I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core." One of the stars of "The Holiday Sitter" just happens to be Jonathan Bennett, who co-starred alongside Lacey Chabert in "Mean Girls" and her first Hallmark movie, the 2010 modern-day Cinderella story "Elevator Girl."

After finding a home at Hallmark himself, Bennett told The List that he began pressing the network to cast him and Chabert together in a holiday film. He'd really love for it to become a mini "Mean Girls" reunion by adding Lindsay Lohan to the mix. "Maybe I fall in love with Lacey Chabert on camera, because she was a friend on 'Mean Girls,' and we flip it," he said of a potential plot idea.

In 2020, Bennett praised Chabert for being one of his best friends for more than 15 years. "She has stood by me and been a beacon of light and love when I have felt lost," he wrote on Instagram. Loyalty is clearly one of Chabert's best qualities, so we believe her when she says that she'll be hauling out the holly for Hallmark for many years to come.