Heather Locklear Launching Acting Comeback With Meghan McCain’s Help

Melrose Place star Heather Locklear is plotting her acting comeback, and she is getting some help from soon-to-be-former The View co-host Meghan McCain. Locklear, 59, is set to star in a Lifetime original movie titled Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story, which McCain signed on to produce. This will be Locklear’s first time on television since she appeared in a 2017 episode of Fresh Off The Boat and had a recurring part in TLC’s Too Close to Home.

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff is based on the story of Kristine Carlson, who co-wrote a book series of the same name with her husband, Dr. Richard Carlson, reports Deadline. After Richard suddenly dies, Carlson finds her own voice and struggles to rebuild her family after the profound loss. Locklear will star as Carlson, while Jason MacDonald (Vampire Diaries) will play Richard. Natashia Bure (Fuller House) will play their daughter Jazzy. Emily Rose (Haven) was cast as Richard’s booker, Briana. The movie will be filmed in Nashville and debut on Lifetime later this year.

“I am beyond excited and honored to be partnering with [Lifetime] and [Carlson] to executive produce the legendary Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff book into a Lifetime film with icon [Locklear] starring as Kristine,” McCain wrote on Instagram. “This book helped me through my own journey in grief and loss with inspiration from Kristine and the Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff story. I can’t wait to continue on this journey with the creation of this movie and to be given the opportunity to share it with all of you and be a part of the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff family. I know this movie, like the book is going to help and inspire so many people and there is no better time than now for it to be made!”

McCain serves as an executive producer on the movie, alongside Maura Dunbar, and Mark Teitelbaum. The project is produced by The Johnson Production Group and Teitelbaum Artists. Ellen S. Pressman is directing and Shannon Bradley-Colleary was hired to write.

Locklear rose to fame as Sammy Jo Carrington on Dynasty and Officer Stacy Sheridan on T.J. Hooker before she played Amanda Woodward on the original Melrose Place. She also starred on Spin City, Franklin & Bash, Hot in Cleveland, and the 2009-2010 Melrose Place revival. Locklear also starred in a handful of movies, including Looney Tunes: Back in Action, The Perfect Man, and Scary Movie 5.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff is McCain’s first major project since announcing plans to leave The View at the end of the current season. She chose to remain in Washington D.C. to raise her daughter Liberty with her husband, The Federalist publisher Ben Domenech. “This was not an easy decision,” McCain said on July 1. “It took a lot of thought and counsel and prayer, and talking to my family and my close friends, and, you know, look — COVID has changed the world for all of us and it changed the way, at least for me, the way I am looking at life, the way I’m living my life, the way I want my life to look like.”