Hollywood star Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) plays Merry, the proprietress of Paradise Ranch in the new Lifetime holiday movie Mistletoe in Montana. Right when she’s given up on love, Merry meets handsome single father Mark (Duane Henry), who brings his kids to the ranch for the holidays. And yes, sparks fly.
In an interview, Melissa says the story was inspired by her cousin’s love story. “She went to a ranch and she fell in love with a wrangler,” says Melissa. At her cousin’s wedding (at a ranch in Wyoming), while on a horse ride, Melissa said, “This would be a fantastic place to shoot a Christmas movie.” The rest is history. Melissa says she went to the rodeo and learned how to lasso.
Melissa says of her experience learning how to really ride a horse for the film: “There’s always been something beautiful to me about riding a horse and western movies and watching how people just become one with the horse, how they’re so comfortable on it. Because they’re big, strong animals and they can be intimidating, and it’s a little scary but I got really comfortable.”
Mistletoe in Montana premieres on Lifetime on Friday, December 17 at 8 pm.
