A TOWN ON THE EDGE OF DISASTER MUST PUT ITS FAITH IN A STRANGER

THE 'LOVE COMES SOFTLY' JOURNEY CONTINUES AS SEVEN-TIME EMMY� AWARD WINNER CLORIS LEACHMAN, SARAH JONES, PATRICK DUFFY, KEVIN RICHARDSON AND HAYLIE DUFF STAR IN 'LOVE TAKES WING' A HALLMARK CHANNEL ORIGINAL MOVIE PREMIERING APRIL 4

Golden Globe Nominee Lou Diamond Phillips Co-stars and Directs

When a frontier town is devastated by an unknown illness, a young woman must stand up for those who need her help the most, even if it means standing alone. Academy Award�, Golden Globe and seven-time Emmy� winner Cloris Leachman ("Malcolm in the Middle"), Sarah Jones ("Big Love"), Haylie Duff ("Backwoods"), former Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson and Patrick Duffy ("The Bold and the Beautiful") star in the Hallmark Channel Original Movie "Love Takes Wing," premiering Saturday, April 4 (9/8c). Golden Globe nominee Lou Diamond Phillips ("Stand and Deliver") costars in and directs the seventh entry into the film series based on the hugely popular Love Comes Softly novels by Janette Oke.

Wounded by the recent death of her husband, Dr. Belinda Simpson (Jones) arrives in the tiny town of Sikeston to take up the post of town physician. Once there, she discovers that many of the town's residents, including children at an orphanage run by Miss Hattie Clarence (Leachman), have fallen ill to or died from an unknown ailment. Soon, Belinda begins to worry that she is in over her head, despite reassurances from her best friend, Annie (Duff), and the town blacksmith, Lee (Jordan Bridges, "Turn the River").

Unfortunately, the residents of Sikeston aren't as trusting of Belinda's abilities as a doctor � mainly because she's a woman. As well, many of them don't even want her to help the orphans, who they blame for infecting the rest of the town. Indeed, they would be happy to see the orphanage close altogether. Opposed by what seems like the entire town, Belinda must trust in her abilities, her friends and her faith to guide her.

"Love Takes Wing" is an LG Films Production in association with Larry Levinson Productions and Faith and Family Entertainment. Larry Levinson is the executive producer and the co-executive producers are Randy Pope, H. Daniel Gross and Michael Moran. Kyle Clark and Stephen Niver are the producers. Lou Diamond Phillips directed from a script by Rachel Stuhler, based on the book Love Takes Wing by Janette Oke.

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 86 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation's leading network in providing quality family programming. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD in April, 2008.