Mariah Carey started filming “A Christmas Melody,” her Hallmark Channel movie, on Tuesday in Cincinnati, according to TMZ.
Carey is making her directorial debut on the film, which will premiere 8 p.m. Dec. 19 on the Hallmark Channel..
“A Christmas Melody” stars Lacy Chabert (“Mean Girls,” “Party of Five”) TMZ says. Brennan Elliott(“Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” “Flight 93,” “Strong Medicine”) also appears in the film, according to the International Movie Database.
WCPO.com reports that the Grammy-winner was filming near Hyde Park Square Tuesday, and Wyoming streets have been decorated with Christmas lights for the film.
The title has been changed since it was announced as “Mistletoe & Melody” by the Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission last month.
“A Christmas Melody” is the second Hallmark Channel movie shot here in three years by producer Brad Krevoy and the Motion Picture Corporation of America. They filmed Nicollette Sheridan’s “The Christmas Spirit” mostly in Lebanon in October 2013, and aired it on the Hallmark Channel in December.
Carey will appear in the film, according to the MPCA website. Carey will co-star as “a music teacher who helps a stressed-out young girl named Emily write a song she will sing at a town’s Christmas variety show.” The pop star “will also feature her chart-topping hit, ‘Oh, Santa.’ ” USA Today and People magazine also say she will direct, star and sing in the film.
The TV movie and "Marauders" both will be filming here through Oct. 16, the last scheduled day of shooting announced for the bank robbery thriller.
