Bell is Twice Hallmark's 'Good Witch'

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

Confession: Catherine Bell is always going to be Lt. Col. Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie to me.

And, if I were bloggin' back when JAG was in its heyday, the show would've had a prime spot here at PTR.

Loved.That.Show.

Alas, JAG is long gone.

But Catherine is around in lots of good stuff these days, notably her turn as Denise Sherwood over on Lifetime's hit series, Army Wives (which I'm still trying to figure out how to squeeze into my very busy DVR schedule so I can bring it to PTR).

She's relocated to South Carolina, where the show films seven months out of the year, with her young daughter Gemma and her husband, Adam Beason. "We absolutely love it here," she says. "It's a city but it feels like a small town, where everyone knows each other and they're friendly."

But tonight, she hangs up her army fatigues and returns to Hallmark in The Good Witch's Garden, the sequel to last year's hit The Good Witch.

Any magic tales from the set? Not according her daughter.

“It’s funny," she says. “I was talking to my daughter on the phone while I was filming, and she was telling me all about magic. How she had magic was sending me magic through the phone to me and these are the words you say to make the magic work and all. So I told her it was good she was sending it because I’m playing the good witch so I need magic. And she told me, ‘Oh mommy, that’s just a movie, you don’t need magic for that!’”

Bell plays Cassandra "Cassie" Nightingale (got to love that name). She's settled into the small town of Middleton and is busy making a home of what is known as Grey House. She's got a boyfriend, Sheriff Jake Russell (played by Chris Potter), and though his kids are happy to have her in the neighborhood, she has yet to gain the trust of some people in town.

In the sequel, a stranger comes to Middleton with papers that entitle him to legal ownership of Grey House, which essentially leaves Cassie without a home and convinced Middleton just isn't that into her. Ultimately, everyone learns holding on too tightly to something can make it more likely that very thing will slip through one's fingers.

Sound good?

(Second confession: For some ridiculous reason, I MISSED the original The Good Witch. Worse, I have no excuse. I saw the promos last year in between my Touched By An Angel replays, but I clearly had a premature senior moment given I a) never set the DVR, and b) never managed to see it when it re-aired. Duh.)

Hallmark is once again doing me (and everyone else) a favor by re-airing the original The Good Witch at 7 p.m. before the premiere of The Good Witch's Garden at 9 p.m. For more scoop on the movie, head on over to HallmarkChannel.com.

Sources: Hallmark Publicity/Syndicate