EXCLUSIVE: Slammed with a new money laundering charge today, Lori Loughlin hasn't entered a plea yet in the college bribery scheme. However, fans of her former series When Calls the Heart will know very soon exactly when the Hallmark Channel is coming back from its self-imposed hiatus. At around 11 AM PST tomorrow, WCT…

Two days after Lori Loughlin flew into town from a Vancouver set to face charges and arrest over the elite college entrance fraud scheme, Hallmark Channel has cut all of its various ties with the actor. “We are saddened by the recent news surrounding the college admissions allegations,” a Crown Media spokesperson told…

After failing to get Mark Steines' retaliation and wrongful-termination lawsuit tossed, Hallmark Channel's owner is now aiming to have the former Home & Family co-host's high-profile attorney Lisa Bloom pushed out of the case. “This motion arises because Defendants retained The Bloom Firm, and that representation…

Crown Media got their family values handed to them today by a federal judge who unequivocally rejected the Hallmark Channel owner's desire to toss ex-Home & Family co-host Mark Steines' retaliation and wrongful termination lawsuit. “Defendants' motion to dismiss is denied, and Defendants' motion to strike is denied,&#8221…

The blast radius from allegations of sexual harassment by Home and Family creator Woody Fraser just legally expanded for Hallmark Channel owner Crown Media Family Networks in a wrongful-termination and harassment suit from a former chef on the homespun show. Longtime food stylist and chef Shanti Hinojos asserts in an…

UPDATED with Crown Media Family Networks statement: Mark Steines has filed a lawsuit against Hallmark Channel owner Crown Media, four months after he was abruptly removed as co-host of the network’s flagship series Home and Family. His four-claim suit filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges that his exit…

Joining the growing list of traditional TV programmers with stand-alone streaming video on demand offerings, Crown Media says it is set to launch Hallmark Movies Now. The $5.99 monthly (or $59.99 annually) streaming service will debut Oct. 3 on iOS, Android, Roku and Amazon Fire. The platform, described as wholly…

The disclosure in an unusually dense SEC filing led to a 19.2% pop today in the share price for the parent of the Hallmark Channel, taking it to a two-year high. The greeting card company already controls 90.3% of Crown Media. It says in the filing that a standstill agreement will expire at the end of 2013. As a…

The owner of the Hallmark Channel says that its original movies are still working — and advertisers like the network’s daytime programming plans which include a two-hour daily show Home And Family and Marie Osmond’s Marie. Crown generated net income of $13.5M, – 38% vs the period last year, on revenues of $86.7M…

The trading day ended with a thud. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 wound up -2.1% as word spread that Germany might balk at a proposal to help bail out debt-laden members of the European Union including Greece and Portugal. That affected media stocks; the Dow Jones U.S. Media Index fell 3%. Disney was the hardest…

Shoppers spent a record $52.4B over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, up 16% from last year, the National Retail Federation says. Add that to reports that European leaders are getting serious about resolving their debt crisis, and it’s easy to see why investors are in such a good mood today. The Dow Jones U.S. Media…

The federal government will have to slash $1.2T in spending, mostly beginning in 2013, if the 12-member congressional Super Committee can’t strike a deficit reduction deal soon. They still appear split — even though, as a practical matter, they have to reach an agreement by midnight in order to have something ready…