Grammy(R) Award Winner Leann Rimes, Eddie Cibrian ('Ugly Betty') and Golden Globe(R) and Emmy(R) Award Nominee Rosanna Arquette ('Desperately Seeking Susan') To Star in The Lifetime Original Movie 'Nora Roberts' Northern Lights,' To Premiere in 2009 on Lifetime

Grammy(R) Award Winner Leann Rimes, Eddie Cibrian ('Ugly Betty') and Golden Globe(R) and Emmy(R) Award Nominee Rosanna Arquette ('Desperately Seeking Susan') To Star in The Lifetime Original Movie 'Nora Roberts' Northern Lights,' To Premiere in 2009 on Lifetime

Additional Nora Roberts Adaptations include "Nora Roberts' Midnight Bayou," "Nora Roberts' Tribute" and "Nora Roberts' High Noon"

#1 New York Times Best-Selling Author, Roberts Has Over 300 Million Books in Print

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lifetime Original Movie "Nora Roberts' Northern Lights," starring Grammy Award winner LeAnn Rimes ("Holiday in Your Heart"), Eddie Cibrian ("Ugly Betty") and Golden Globe and Emmy Award Nominee Rosanna Arquette ("Desperately Seeking Susan," "The Executioner's Song") is the third of four 2009 Nora Roberts' movies slated to begin production that also include "Nora Roberts' Midnight Bayou," "Nora Roberts' Tribute" and "Nora Roberts' High Noon." Mandalay Television and Stephanie Germain Productions will produce the film with Peter Guber and Stephanie Germain serving as executive producers.

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In making the announcement, Tanya Lopez, Senior Vice President, Original Movies, Lifetime Networks, said, "Between the loyal fans of both Nora Roberts and the multi-talented LeAnn Rimes, we think this will be a perfect union." She added, "Viewers will be excited to see the pages of another Nora Roberts' book come to life in this movie."

The four previous Nora Roberts' movies that aired on Lifetime Television in 2007 together reached over 34 million viewers total and "Nora Roberts' Angels Fall" was the highest rated Lifetime Original Movie of 2007.

In "Nora Roberts' Northern Lights," former Baltimore policeman Nate Burns (Cibrian) was hoping to start a new life by accepting the job of chief of police in the town of Lunacy, Alaska. He escapes to the small remote town in an effort to forget the traumatic death of his partner, for which he holds himself partially responsible. But the moment he meets Meg Galligan (Rimes), an independent and feisty bush pilot with her own demons, he finds himself falling for her. The town is rocked when the body of Meg's father, a man who Meg believed had abandoned her and her mother Charlene (Arquette) sixteen years ago, turns up in a mountain cave. Nate finds himself in the middle of a high-profile murder investigation and quickly learns the killer is someone in the community. Nate must use his big-city survival instincts to solve the mystery that threatens his new life and new love.

LeAnn Rimes has sold more than 37 million albums, won two Grammy Awards, three Academy of Country Music Awards and 12 Billboard Music Awards. Rimes is the youngest recipient of a Grammy Award, and was also the first country recording artist to win in the "Best New Artist" category. Her current album, "Family," marks the first time Rimes has written or co-written every song. She recently won the CMT Award for "Collaborative Video of the Year" with Bon Jovi, and the Gospel Music Association's Dove Award for her song, "Ready for a Miracle."

Rimes has scored numerous hit singles in her career, including "Can't Fight the Moonlight," which went #1 in 11 countries, and "How Do I Live," which holds the record for the longest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at 69 weeks. As an actress, Rimes starred in the ABC telefilm "Holiday in Your Heart," based in part on Rimes autobiographical novel. She also guest-starred as singer Connie Francis in the NBC series "American Dreams," and in an episode of the daytime series "Days of Our Lives." An accomplished author, Rimes wrote two children's books Jag and Jag's New Friend, as well as the novel, Holiday in Your Heart.

Eddie Cibrian currently has a recurring role in the ABC series "Ugly Betty" as Coach Diaz, boyfriend of Betty's sister Hilda (Ana Ortiz). Cibrian starred for five seasons in the NBC series, "Third Watch," and also in the ESPN series "Tilt," followed by the ABC series "Invasion" and Fox series "Vanished." Additional television appearances include, "The Starter Wife," "Samantha Who," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Criminal Minds," "The Young and the Restless," "The Bold and the Beautiful," "Baywatch Nights," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" and "Saved by the Bell: The College Years." Cibrian also starred in the CBS television movie, "Logan's War: Bound by Honor," the NBC miniseries "In the Beginning," and the feature films "Living Out Loud," "The Cave," "Say It Isn't So" and "But I'm a Cheerleader."

Film and television actress Rosanna Arquette started her career as a teenager in the Bette Davis telefilm, "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home." She went on to earn an Emmy Award nomination for the controversial television movie, "The Executioner's Song." Arquette's recent television credits include roles on "The L Word," "Medium," "What About Brian," and "Grey's Anatomy." Arquette's film credits include "Gorp," John Syles' "Baby It's You," "After Hours" and "Nobody's Fool." She earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work alongside Madonna in "Desperately Seeking Susan." Arquette also starred in Martin Scorsese's "New York Stories," Quentin Tarintino's "Pulp Fiction" and David Cronenberg's "Crash." In recent years, Arquette has also been directing and producing, including the films "Searching for Debra Winger" and "All We Are Saying."

The Nora Roberts adaptations join an impressive list of novels developed into Lifetime Original Movies, including the top rated basic cable movie for 2008, Kim Edwards' "The Memory Keeper's Daughter," starring Dermot Mulroney, Emily Watson and Gretchen Mol, and Jodi Picoult's "The Tenth Circle" starring Kelly Preston, Ron Eldard and Brittany Robertson.

Since publishing her first novel in 1981, Roberts has gone on to become a #1 New York Times best-selling sensation. With more than 300 million books in print, Roberts' novels have spent a combined 138 weeks at the #1 spot on the coveted Times list. Since 1999, every book published under her name has hit the New York Times best seller list. Amazon.com recently reported that Roberts is their third most popular author -- following only to Tom Clancy and J.K. Rowling. Roberts is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry. Nora Roberts is represented by literary agent Amy Berkower at Writers House, LLC and by CAA. Nora Roberts' books are published by Penguin Group (US).

"Nora Roberts' Northern Lights" is produced by Mandalay Television and Stephanie Germain Productions for Lifetime Television. Peter Strauss ("The Jacket"), Peter Guber ("Rainman," "Batman," "The Color Purple," "The Jacket") and Stephanie Germain (Lifetime's "Gracie's Choice," "The Day After Tomorrow") are the executive producers. Randi Richmond (Lifetime's "Odd Girl Out" and "Miracle Run") will serve as producer. Janet Brownell (Lifetime's "Nora Roberts' Angels Fall," "Eloise at the Plaza") wrote the teleplay and Mike Robe (Lifetime's "Nora Roberts' Montana Sky," "Reversible Errors") will direct.

In addition to the first four Nora Roberts Lifetime Original Movies, through her production company, Stephanie Germain produced TNT's Johnson & Johnson presentation of Richard Paul Evan's bestseller, "A Perfect Day," starring Rob Lowe; and Lifetime's "Gracie's Choice," starring Kristin Bell, Diane Ladd and Anne Heche, who received an Emmy(R) nomination for her performance. "Gracie's Choice" premiered in January 2004 and became one of cable's highest rated films. Some additional credits include: the highest rated television movie of its season, CBS' "The Pilot's Wife," based on Anita Shreve's bestseller and starring Emmy(R) and Oscar(R) award winner Christine Lahti; the ABC special effects extravaganza "Superfire," created by best-selling authors Richard Preston and Doug Preston; ABC's "King of the World: The Muhammad Ali Story," based upon the book by Pulitzer Prize winner David Remnick and starring Terrence Howard; ABC's "Holiday In Your Heart," starring LeAnn Rimes and Bernadette Peters; CBS' miniseries "The Doris Duke Story," starring Lauren Bacall and Richard Chamberlain; and the TBS premiere movie "Fatal Error," starring Janine Turner. Germain co-produced Showtime's one hour series, "Jeremiah," starring Luke Perry, for two seasons. She was also an executive producer on the blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow," starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal, and directed by Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day").

Mandalay Television has achieved great success in series, long form television movies and miniseries. Mandalay's critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning series "Brotherhood" is entering its third season on Showtime. Mandalay movies and miniseries have produced some of the strongest ratings of all-time, including Dean Koontz's "Intensity," a four-hour miniseries based on the best seller by Dean Koontz -- the highest rated miniseries ever on FOX Broadcasting; "First Daughter," a two-hour original movie starring Mariel Hemingway for TBS, which was the highest rated basic cable movie in history and spawned two sequels, "First Target" and "First Shot"; "Blood Crime," which launched USA's Crime Friday and was the highest rated original program for the network in 2002; and "The Linda McCartney Story" for CBS. Mandalay Television has recently completed production on "RPM," a ground breaking microseries for TNT starring Johnathon Schaech.

Lifetime is the leader in women's television and one of the top-rated basic cable television networks. A diverse, multi-media company, Lifetime is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Lifetime Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women and Lifetime Digital (including myLifetime.com) are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a 50/50 joint venture of Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.

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Source: Lifetime Networks

CONTACT: Tracy Speed Director, Publicity, of Lifetime, +1-310-556-7541,
tspeed@lifetimetv.com; or Amy Pfister, Fifteen Minutes Public Relations, for
Mandalay Television, +1-323-556-9700, amy@fifteenminutes.com

Web Site: http://www.mylifetime.com/

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