Coming Up: “Marry Me”

The secret star of Lifetime’s Marry Me? A gorgeous Oscar de la Renta wedding gown. Featured in the shot-in-Atlanta miniseries (airing December 12 and 13), the frock had its own room during filming at Buckhead’s Northside Church this fall. Less high-maintenance was the gown’s wearer, star Lucy Liu, who sat with us and her Lab, Jack, on the church steps between takes. In the film, Liu’s Rae Ann Carter has to fend off Steven Pasquale (Rescue Me), Bobby Cannavale (Will & Grace), and Enrique Murciano (Without a Trace).

“I love doing romantic comedy and had really gotten away from it,” says Liu. “Rae is such a multilayered, relatable woman.” While in Atlanta, Liu was dazzled by Tin Drum Asia Cafe (“I’m addicted to their Vietnamese pho bowls!”) and the Dalí exhibit at the High Museum, another filming location.

Inside, Annie Potts (who plays Liu’s mother) struggled to open one of the frigid Methodist church’s sun-streaked windows. She starred in the network’s civil rights–era drama Any Day Now and is still fascinated by the period. “I got to visit the King Center, which was huge for me,” says Potts. “Our kids couldn’t figure out why my husband and I were crying the night Obama got elected. It didn’t make any sense to their generation, thank God!”