A Conversation With Justine Bateman

On Sunday, Aug. 8, the Hallmark Channel will premiere “The Hollywood Mom’s Mystery,” based on the novel by longtime Hollywood insider Linda Maracotta. The film’s stars include George Hamilton (“The L.A. Riot Spectacular”) as Woody Prentice; Angie Everhart (“The Cradle Will Rock”) as his wife, Julia; Elizabeth Pena (“Suburban Madness”) as Detective Theresa Shoe; Andrew McCarthy (“Crusader”) as Kit Freers; and Justine Bateman (“Family Ties”) as his wife, Lucy.

Justine Bateman says one of the reasons she agreed to play Lucy Freers in “The Hollywood Mom’s Mystery” is that she could identify with the character.

Bateman (whose brother, Jason Bateman, stars on Fox’s “Arrested Development”) says,

“I’ve worked in Hollywood for a long time, and so has Lucy. But she never thinks of herself as a Hollywood person. For her, her priority is being a wife and mother, and while her career (she’s an animator) is important, it’s nowhere near as important as her family. And I feel the same way. And although she’s surrounded by these glamorous neighbors, she doesn’t share their lifestyle. They have their lives, and she has hers.”

But then, one of the neighbors, Julia (Angie Everhart), is found dead in the Freers’ swimming pool, and Lucy and her husband, Kit (Andrew McCarthy), and to some extent Julia’s husband, Woody (George Hamilton — who in real life was once Everhart’s father-in-law when she was married to his son, Ashley), become suspects in the murder.

“Lucy’s husband, Kit, is a suspect,” Bateman says, “because Julia had tried to seduce him. And, it follows that Lucy would be a suspect because she wouldn’t have appreciated Julia’s seductive intentions.”

Lucy realizes that she’s the one who has to go out and find the real killer.

“And it’s not an easy task. For one thing, she’s led a rather quiet life. She’s not used to going out and doing things like this,” Bateman says. “Yes, it’s more exciting than anything she’s done in a long time. But some unpleasant things happen. She’s lied to, betrayed, verbally abused and threatened.”

And while there are those scary moments (after all, a woman was murdered!), Bateman says, “It’s all done with a delicious sense of fun and humor. And that’s because the people at Hallmark know how to take a brilliantly written script and turn into a brilliant movie.”

Justine Bateman became an international star courtesy of her work on the much-acclaimed “Family Matters” series. But after the show ended, she didn’t seem to take as much advantage of her popularity as she might have, and actually left acting for a while.

“I had some problems,” she says, alluding to an eating disorder that she’d been struggling with for years. “And I felt the best way to deal with this was to get out of the public spotlight. I also felt I needed time to find out what I really wanted to do, and whether acting would be part of it.”

When she was offered the role of Lucy Freer on “The Hollywood Mom’s Mystery,” she says, “I was surprised at how quickly I said yes. I really hadn’t thought about doing something at that point, but I suppose I was more ready than I realized. But then,” she says with a soft laugh, “many of the good things in my life have come to me as surprises.”

“As a matter of fact”, Justine Bateman says, “my husband and I got the surprise news that we were going to have another baby at about the same time I was asked to do the movie.”

In Focus:

Mark Consuelos (ex-Mateo Santos in “All My Children”) says life after daytime drama has been pretty good for him. Consuelos, who just joined the cast of Lifetime’s hit series “Missing” (previously called “1-800-Missing”), did a film, “The Great Raid,” with Benjamin Bratt (“Ocean’s Eleven”) and James Franco (“James Dean”) scheduled for release later this year.

“It’s a great movie based on a true World War II story about a daring rescue of American prisoners of war being held in a Japanese prison camp that can only be described as hell on earth.”

Accepting the role of the new FBI agent on “Missing” was not only a good career move, he says, “I felt it was like an answer to a prayer for Kelly and me.” (Kelly is his wife, Kelly Ripa, also ex-“AMC” and currently star of ABC’s “Faith and Hope” and co-host of “Live With Regis.”)

He continues, “I made the movie in Australia, and it was rough being so far away from her and our children. Kelly came to visit a few times, but the distances made it difficult for her to be with me as much as we both wanted.”

So when ‘Missing’ came along and I realized it would be shot in Toronto, I didn’t hesitate for a moment in taking it. We live in New York and for us, Toronto is almost like a suburb. It’s a one-hour drive to the airport, one hour in the air, and one hour to my front door.”

The premise of “Missing,” which also welcomes Vivica A. Fox (“Kill Bill”) this season, involves an FBI agent, Jess Mastriani (Caterina Scorsone), who finds missing people through her dreams.

Does Consuelos believe in psychic powers?

“I believe everything is possible. I, myself, have experienced thinking about someone I hadn’t thought about in years, and suddenly I get a call from that person. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe not. I think we need to keep an open mind about these things.”