In The News

Heather Hemmens says her off-the-grid childhood helped her get the roles she has now, in Hallmark Channel’s ‘Christmas in My Heart’ and on the CW Network series ‘Roswell, New Mexico.’

Lots of people can recite lines from their favorite holiday special or movie that they watched on TV every year growing up. That’s not the case for Maine-born actress Heather Hemmens, even though she’s now starring in one.

Hemmens, the lead actress in Hallmark Channel’s “Christmas in My Heart,” grew up in the woods of Waldo, a small town near Belfast, in a house that was off the grid. So her family had no electricity and no television, meaning there were no Christmas movie repeats. But Hemmens feels the discipline and focus she learned from her childhood in Maine have contributed to her success as an actress. So, in a way, her lack of TV helped her get on TV.

The festival will still take place virtually as previously scheduled beginning Jan. 20.

Sundance has canceled its planned in-person events in Park City, Utah for 2022 and for the second year in a row will move its screenings fully online.

Sundance had attempted to stage a hybrid festival for 2022 and host screenings both on the ground and virtually. But with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreading at rapid rates and forcing the cancellation of other awards shows and events across the industry, the festival’s hand was finally forced.

After more than 30 years of growth and ardent support from Maine’s music scene, Bull Moose founder Brett Wickard has sold the music, books and pop culture retailer to its employees through an employee stock ownership plan. 

Through the transition Wickard will remain the interim CEO and chair of the board of directors.

During a company-wide meeting on Monday night, Wickard said he laid out three goals for the sale: to build a platform for employees to have more control and input into company operations, to create financial security for their future, and to provide more earning opportunities. 

Even as the pandemic slogs along, there’s no stopping the independent moviemaking spirit that puts hope in focus.

Welcome to 2022! Wait, don’t run away. 

While I acknowledge there’s been some, let’s call it “unfortunate carryover” from a truly abysmal 2020, there’s still one thing we can all look forward to, even in the darkest, most pandemic-clouded of days, and that’s the movies. Indie movies, specifically. 

“The Black Phone,” June 24

Maine’s own Joe Hill (son of Maine’s own Stephen King) wrote the short story inspiring this horror thriller, about a masked serial killer (Ethan Hawke), and the young boy trying to escape his clutches with the help of a mysterious telephone that lets him communicate with the dead. Specifically, the other kids Hawke’s psycho has killed. Leave it to Mainers to make things terrifying. 

Breanna Wing, the Auburn native who appeared next to Margot Robbie in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time in . . . Hollywood,” has landed a part in the upcoming biopic, “Being the Ricardos.”

The film, directed by screenwriter/director Aaron Sorkin, follows the relationship between comedienne and sitcom star Lucille Ball and her then-husband, “I Love Lucy” co-star and bandleader Desi Arnaz, played by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, respectively. Wing has been cast as “Chorus Girl Angie,” who appears in a flashback scene when Lucy and Desi begin their romance.