Hallmark feared leading ladies like Lacey Chabert were ‘getting old’

Hallmark’s executive vice president of programming, Lisa Hamilton Daly, told her team that she didn’t want to cast “older people,” saying they didn’t fit her image for the channel, a new age discrimination lawsuit filed against the claims from the studio.

In the lawsuit, Hamilton Daly is quoted as singling out Holly Robinson Peete and Lacey Chabert, who are 60 and 42 years old, respectively, as examples of “old talent” who needed to be “replaced.” Both actors have starred in Christmas movies and shows on the Hallmark Channel.

“Lacey is getting older and we need to find someone like her to replace her as she ages,” Hamilton Daly was quoted as saying.

Of Robinson Peete, she said: “Nobody wants her because she’s too expensive and she’s getting too old. She can no longer play leading roles,” the lawsuit alleges.

Penny Perry, a 79-year-old casting director, filed the lawsuit on Oct. 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court. She claims she was unceremoniously fired in April after nine years with the company.

According to the complaint, Hamilton Daly repeatedly told Perry she was “too slow” and tried to remove her as part of his goal of finding “new talent.”

“We need to bring in someone who knows more young talent,” the executive said, according to the lawsuit. “Our protagonists are getting older.”

Hallmark’s communications team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Perry is an industry veteran whose casting credits include “Cocoon,” “Young Guns” and “The NeverEnding Story.” According to her complaint, she suffers from multiple sclerosis and is legally blind in one eye. She claims Hallmark failed to accommodate her disability.

Perry says she received strong annual performance reviews, including one just two months before she was fired.

Hamilton Daly was hired as Executive Vice President of Programming at Hallmark in September 2021, having previously worked at Netflx and A+E Networks. The suit alleges that Hamilton Daly quickly decided that Perry was “too old to work in her position and maneuvered to oust her from the company.”

She claims her office was moved to a different floor, she was excluded from meetings, and on one project her casting duties were assigned to an outside consultant. After she was fired, Perry claims the company hired a younger man to do her job.

SAG-AFTRA has long fought against ageism in casting, going so far as to get California lawmakers to ban IMDb from publishing actors’ ages. That law was rejected in court as unconstitutional, but the union later convinced IMDb to allow actors to remove their ages from their profiles.