Casting director Penny Perry, filed a suit in Los Angeles Superior Court this month accusing Hallmark Channel of age discrimination. The lawsuit claims the Executive Vice President of Programming, Lisa Hamilton Daly, wanted to replace stars like 42 year old Lacey Chabert and 60 year old Holly Robinson Peete with younger actresses. "Lacey’s getting older and we have to find someone like her to replace her. No one wants to watch a 50 year old fall in love". As for Holly “No one wants her because she’s too expensive and getting too old. She can’t play leading roles anymore. She can be cast as the mom of a star, but she's too old to be a star in these types of productions".
Penny who has cast 450 productions names other stars Ms Daly wanted replaced because they're too old in her suit. That includes Elizabeth Mitchell, Catherine Bell, Alison Sweeney, Autumn Reeser, Kelly Martin, Nikki Deloach, Rachel Boston, Brennan Elliott, Cameron Mathieson, Paul Greene, Eric Close and Teri Hatcher.
When Penny, who is 79, argued that these are the stars Hallmark fans want to see she was allegedly told "I guess you're too old to see clearly now" and was fired.
Hallmark released a statement saying “Lacey and Holly have a home at Hallmark. We do not generally comment on pending litigation. And while we deny these outrageous allegations, we are not going to discuss an employment relationship in the media".