Pop Culture Fix: Generation Q’s Arienne Mandi (Dani!) Is Gaying Up Hallmark Movies Now

Happy mid-week, my friends and foes! Did you know it’s March Madness time in the NCAA and also here at Autostraddle? If you’re an A+ member, Natalie’s even going to let you help seed the brackets with your favorite couples! And then when you return from doing that, I have made a Pop Culture Fix just for you!


+ Okay so Melora Hardin is in this new Hallmark movie called Love, Classified, which seems like it’s going to be gay due to the gay promo photos and also this description: “Romance novelist, Emilia, returns home after a long absence, to reconnect with her children who also are finding their own paths to love… Taylor (Katherine McNamara) matches with a woman that changes the way she’s always thought about love.” That woman is Arienne Mandi, who you know as Dani from Gen Q! GAAAAY. 

Arienne Mandi and Katherine McNamara stand in a doorway holding flowers in Hallmark's "Love, Classified"

+ It is impossible to believe it’s been a decade since we lost Whitney. CBS is planning a special about it.

+ Season three of A Black Lady Sketch Show premieres on April 8th.

+ This copy for this casting news for season two of P-Valley is so good it gave me chills. Shamika Cotton and Miracle Watts are joining the cast as Farrah and Big Bone, respectively. Looks like Farrah and Mercedes will “strike up an unlikely connection.” Big Bone? Well: She’s “a fighter and a biter with sky-high ambitions. She is a rambunctious new presence at The Pynk blessed with a molasses-thick body, knees of steel, and a tongue more lethal than a draco.” 😳

+ HELLO HERE IS THE FULL TRAILER FOR MS. MARVEL!

+ Kristen Stewart almost took the First Dead Girl role in Scream 4??? That’s my main takeaway from this most recent interview on her Oscars campaign tour.

+ Stephanie Beatriz recorded Encanto’s “Waiting on a Miracle” while she was in labor!

+ Stef and Lena and Stef and Lena and Stef and Lena and Stef and Lena!

+ Abbott Elementary has been renewed for a second season! Best news of the week! (“Don’t tell me what kind of day to have!”) And here’s Principle Ava’s announcement!

+ Mary Lambert crying while covering Melissa Etheridge is for sure the gayest thing you will see today.

+ How Arthur became TV’s longest-running animated show.

+ Tegan and Sara are so excited about the New York Post’s declaration that lesbian fashion is a “sexy and powerful” trend. (Carmen reported this first in the AAA yesterday!)

+ Reflections on Turning Red from an Asian American teenage girl seeing herself in the first Asian-led Pixar film.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1719 articles for us.

6 Comments

  1. I thought MS. MARVEL was supposed to be a lesbian.

    and the actress playing Cassie on Good Trouble is leaving which is a shock, although shes been playing the character for a decade now so maybe time to walk away.

    • I’ve read not all, but a far amount of Ms.Marvel and I’m pretty sure she is not canonically gay. Are you thinking about America Chavez? (She is set to debut in Doctor Strange and is a lesbian in comic canon and it looks like in MCU canon as well). One of Kamala (Ms. Marvel)’s friends is a lesbian tho, Zoe.

  2. the idea of doing anything while in labor other than like. being in labor is absolutely horrifying but to record a song? and have it be enjoyable? what a hero stephanie beatriz is

    • I posted a note to my students to let them know why those who hadn’t gotten their essay grades back weren’t going to be getting them back for some time. :) (I tried to grade a couple more, but … nope. I was looking for a distraction early in the process!)

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