2011 Mot her’s Day Gift Gu ide This Mother’s Day, forgo the typical chocolate and flowers! Why not give a gift sure to be treasured by Mom with some acclaimed, award-winning DVDs from A&E Home Entertainment. After all, doesn’t every Mom crave a few quiet moments alone, curled up with some entertainment capable of transporting her to Victorian-era England for Jane Austen’s classic PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, to the frontier of 19th Century Colorado for the adventure and romance of DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN or into the mystery, adventure and romance of a Lifetime Original Movie? We thought so… Should you be interested in requesting any of the following Mother’s Day recommendations for review or promotion, please don’t hesitate to contact Suzanne Dobson at [email protected] .
Lifetime Movies In 2010, A&E Home Entertainment launched a new branded home entertainment label from Lifetime Networks. The #1 network for women, Lifetime has offered high quality entertainment for over 25 years, and the label has quickly become one of A&E’s best-selling lines. Over 30 specially-priced titles ($14.95SRP) were released in 2010 with many more and new, original Lifetime movies coming in 2011 and beyond; below, find several suggestions sure to be popular with moms of all walks!
HONEYMOON WITH MOM When Shannon ( Virginia Williams , How I Met Your Mother ) is dumped at the altar, her single mother, Marla ( Shelley Long , Cheers ), suggests they take the planned honeymoon to a remote island resort together. Marla, a publisher of a top magazine, tells Shannon that the trip to paradise will make their relationship stronger, but she has ulterior motives: to land an interview with the resort’s owner, Nick Tercel ( Jack Scalia ), a former astronaut who was involved in a scandal several years earlier and fled to the island. When Marla finally meets Nick and conducts the interview without his knowledge, she finds herself falling for him. However, when her scheme backfires, Shannon, upset and disappointed, confronts her mother. Meanwhile, Shannon meets a new man ( Eric Johnson ) on the island, must contend with her ex-fiancé ( Edward Finlay ), who shows up unexpectedly, and finds herself face-to-face with a man she’s been waiting to meet her entire life—her father ( Winston Rekert ).
MOM, DAD, AND HER 15-year-old Sydney Foster ( Brittney Wilson , Life Unexpected ) is a troubled teen from a broken home, heading for trouble. After being caught shoplifting and a bout of alcohol poisoning, her volatile behavior has finally reached a breaking point. Sydney is sent to spend the summer with her father ( Paul McGillion , Stargate: Atlantis ) who hopes to reconnect with her and introduce her to his new wife Emma ( Melora Hardin , The Office ). At first Sydney lashes out, feeling abandoned yet again—missing her boyfriend and her city life. But she slowly forms new relationships with those around her—including a local girl whose mother is dying of cancer—and begins to turn her attitude around. She unexpectedly finds herself connecting with her new stepmother, who is nervously expecting her first child. It is this relationship with her stepmother, and the birth of the new baby, that finally heals the wounds left by her parent's bitter divorce.
A&E Home Entertainment a Holiday Gift Guide 1 SEX & THE SINGLE MOM Jess Gradwell ( Gail O’Grady , Desperate Housewives, NYPD Blue ) is a divorced mother with a high-stress job and teenage daughter. A hard-working paralegal who strives to be a lawyer one day, Jess juggles the pressures of her parenting and professional lives with grace and agility. Meanwhile, her 15-year-old daughter, Sara ( Danielle Panabaker ), is dealing with the pressure of being sexually inexperienced in a world of sexually active teenagers. Jess tries to convince her daughter to abstain from sex until she is in love, but Sara has her heart set on dating the high school bad boy and changing her goody-two-shoes image. So when Mom, who has been vigilantly preaching the importance of responsible sex, ends up pregnant after a brief encounter with a handsome pediatric surgeon, the mother-daughter dynamic shifts dramatically, causing a chain of events that will either break the bond Jess and Sara once shared, or bring them closer together than ever before.
MORE SEX & THE SINGLE MOM In the dramatic continuation of Sex and the Single Mom, a mother and teenage daughter deal with their choices regarding men, sex and the consequences of those decisions on their lives. Paralegal Jess Gradwell ( Gail O’Grady , Desperate Housewives ) met pediatric surgeon Alex Lofton ( Grant Show , Melrose Place ) during expert witness preparation for a malpractice case. Their affair resulted in the birth of a son Alex never knew about. Now engaged to a great man from the office, Jess is startled to see Alex back in the courthouse where they first met years ago. While Jess tries to sort out her complex life, her daughter Sara ( Chelsea Hobbs ) loses her virginity to an older photographer who has little interest in a relationship. Sara now shares with her mom the flurry of emotions relationships and sex bring to light. Tortured by her conflicted feelings regarding her secure relationship and her smoldering liaison with Alex, Jess finds herself faced with a critical decision.
PLAYING HOUSE Frannie ( Joanne Kelly , Warehouse 13 ) is a junior copy editor at a publishing house in New York City when she lands the account of her favorite author, Michael Tate ( Colin Ferguson , Eureka ). Everything is coming together nicely for her, and she seems to be living the dream—until she finds out she has accidentally gotten pregnant by Calvin (Lucas Bryant , Haven ), her boyfriend of just a few months. The couple does what they think is the responsible thing and moves to the suburbs to settle down, but behind the picket fence, neither one of them is truly happy. When a mysterious stranger waltzes into town, he offers to whisk Frannie back to the bright lights of New York City. Will she give in to temptation and the glamorous life that could await her, or will she stay true to her new family and the life she has created with Calvin? A&E Home Entertainment PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Magnificent and highly acclaimed A&E productions of the timeless classics have long been the standard bearers for literary adaptations. And now, the best-selling A&E title of all time is an anglophile’s dream in two companion formats: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: BLU-RAY EDITION, digitally remastered to the exacting standards of the hi-def format, presenting the sweeping epic in an optimal viewing experience and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the definitive SD version, color enhanced and completely digitally restored from hi-def source materials for the most pristine SD version ever! The treasured Emmy ® Award-winning production, which first aired in 1996, seamlessly translates the wit, romance and intelligence of Jane Austen’s classic novel to the screen with a masterful script, deft direction, and star-making performances from Colin Firth (Love Actually, Bridget Jones’ Diary ) and Jennifer Ehle (The King’s Speech ) before their recent reunion for the The King’s Speech . The bonus programming featured on both formats
A&E Home Entertainment a Holiday Gift Guide 2 includes the featurettes “Lasting Impressions,” “An Impromptu Walkabout with Adrian Lukis and Lucy Briers,” “Turning Point,” and “Uncovering the Technical Restoration Process.” PRIDE AND PREJUDICE has deservedly taken its place as one of the greatest television productions of all time. Called “the best Austen of all” by The New York Times , the revered A&E/BBC production of this perennial best-seller has captured the hearts of millions. (SD AVAILABLE NOW; $39.95 SRP/ 2 DISCS; BLU-RAY AVAILABLE NOW; $49.95 SRP/ 2 DISCS.)
RICH MAN, POOR MAN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION Never-Before-Released on DVD! Before “Roots,” “Lonsesome Dove,” and “Centennial,” there was RICH MAN, POOR MAN, the multiple-award winning 1970s television miniseries starring Peter Strauss (The Jericho Mile ) that spanned decades and generations tracing the epic story of the Jordache family from 1945 to the late 1960s. This four-time Emmy ® Award winning, star-studded classic was American television’s first-ever dramatic miniseries and now, for the first time ever, this “holy grail” of classic TV is available on DVD in RICH MAN, POOR MAN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, a 9-disc collector’s set that brings together all 34 episodes from Books I and II of this classic series based on Irvin Shaw’s best-selling novel, plus an all-new candid interview with Strauss. This honored historic TV production features an all-star cast, including Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides ), Ed Asner (Up ), Bill Bixby (The Incredible Hulk ), Susan Blakely (Nip/Tuck ), and Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch ), to explore the timeless themes of the disillusionment of the American dream and the difficulties of human relationships. (AVAILABE NOW; DVD SET $79.95 SRP/9 DISCS.)
DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN: THE COMPLETE SEASONS 1 –6 INDIVIDUALLY RE-PACKAGED AND RE-PRICED FOR 2011! DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN starring Jane Seymour (Wedding Crashers ) and Joe Lando was one of the most popular family dramas of the 1990s, drawing an average of 14 million viewers each week. When the five-time Emmy ® Award winning series was cancelled following its six-year run, it spawned one of the largest viewer protests in television history. Just in time for Mother’s Day, A&E will release all six critically-acclaimed seasons of DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN individually, newly-repackaged and repriced for optimal gift giving! DR. QUINN: THE COMPLETE SEASON ONE through THE COMPLETE SEASON SIX will each be available for $29.95SRP, offering the very best in family entertainment (SEASONS ONE –THREE, AVAILABLE MARCH 29; SEASONS FOUR –SIX, AVAILABLE APRIL 26; $29.95SRP EA.)
ALSO AVAILABLE: DR. QUINN MEGASET ™ For DR.QUINN uber-fans, there’s also DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION MEGASET ™. Bringing together all 150 episodes from this groundbreaking historical drama, the 42 DVD set also includes the two feature-length TV movies and a host of unforgettable extras, and is also priced to collect at $149.95SRP.
A&E ® Home Entertainment, part of the Consumer Products Division of A&E ® Television Networks (AETN) is a video distributor of non-theatrical programming, featuring collectible DVD editions of the high quality programming from A&E ® Network and HISTORY ™, as well as acquired classic programming. A&E ® Home Entertainment brings the best of critically acclaimed entertainment presented in award-winning packaging to the special interest category. For more information about ordering these and other titles from the A&E ® Home Entertainment Collection, call (212) 206-8600 (TRADE ONLY). Consumers please call 1-800-933-6249 (A&E ®). In addition to placing orders by phone, A&E ® Home Entertainment products may be purchased online at ShopAETV.com.
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