Paul Campbell Reveals the Joke He Wasn’t Allowed to Tell in a Hallmark Movie: ‘Legally He Can’t Marry His Cat’

Paul Campbell shares a not-safe-for-Hallmark joke that never made it to the screen.

Co-writer of the 2022 Hallmark hit. Three wise men and a baby — in which he starred alongside Andrew Walker and Tyler Hynes — Campbell, 44, opened up about this creative process and the ways the network evolves its storytelling, interweaving important stories in its scripts. IN Three wise men and a babyfor example, his character goes so far as to take anxiety medication on camera.

“Seeing him actually take pills means you have to admit that his disorder is a real thing,” Campbell said Sup. “If he’s not taking his pills, you can kind of say, ‘I don’t know. Things are happening to him.’ Hallmark said, “Yes, absolutely. We’d love to see that. That’s a big part of his journey.” I don’t know if three or four years ago that would have made it into the edit.”

“However, there are still some limitations,” he added. “I can’t write ‘shit.’ I can write ‘jerk,’ which is pretty fun and opens some doors.”

Paul Campbell, Andrew Walker and Tyler Hynes in ‘Three Wise Men and a Baby’. Bettina Strauss/Hallmark Media Paul Campbell says Tyler Hynes is a ‘natural baby whisperer’ in ‘Three Wise Men and a Baby’

Instead, Campbell said he either resorts to using the word “stinks” or relies on “older” with his choice of words such as “rats” or “jeepers.”

“I wrote a joke about marrying a cat in a recent script,” he recalled. “There was a joke where my character was like, ‘Marriage is different for everyone. Love is different. I love my cat, but I wouldn’t marry my cat.’ And then another character says, ‘Yeah, because of the legal red tape.'”

“Hallmark told me, ‘We can’t tell a joke that the only reason he doesn’t marry his cat is because he can’t legally marry his cat,'” he continued. “They sent that one back. It was a good joke, though.”

Paul Campbell and ‘Three Wise Men and a Baby’ co-writer Kimberly Sustad at the Christmas Conference.

Presley Ann/Shutterstock

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Hynes and Walker also shared the ways the Hallmark Channel has evolved.

“There’s no reason why you can’t represent multiple versions of love. I think the network feels the same way,” Hynes says.

Walker noted that while the films will continue to deliver on their promises of a hopeful happy ending, not everything is tied to a perfect arc.

“This year I shot a film called christmas island, and at the end of the movie our characters said, ‘We don’t know how this is going to work, but we’re going to try to make it work.’ She leaves as a pilot, and I have to stay on the island. It wasn’t a typical Hallmark movie ending, because there’s still an element of suspense in the air.”

Tyler Hynes, Andrew Walker and Paul Campbell at Christmas Con.

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Three wise men and a baby he was A Hallmark first, too, as it featured three male leads and centered on three brothers who are forced to care for a baby just as Christmas approaches.

While speaking with PEOPLE at Hallmark’s October 2022 “Countdown to Christmas” event, Campbell shared one of the most shocking things he learned about Hynes while filming the Christmas movie. “I think the most surprising thing is how good Tyler was with babies. He was just like a natural born baby whisperer,” Campbell laughed. “He would pick up a crying baby and just walk around whispering things to her.”

“Andrew and I would just say, ‘Oh, Tyler came up with this.’ That goes to the top of the resume!” he added.

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Although working with the babies ensured a lot of crying on set, Campbell revealed that the emotional nature of the film lifted their hearts and made them cry during filming.

“It’s a love story between three brothers … these three guys rediscovering each other,” he said. “The emotional arcs and characters are very similar to a traditional rom-com. They can’t stand each other at the beginning of the movie, but by the end, the three of us are crying in the van and talking about our feelings.”

Walker added: “It’s probably the funniest project I’ve ever been a part of, but it was founded with so much heart.”

Special extended cut of Three wise men and a baby is available to stream on Hallmark Movies Now.

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