Valerie Harper starts work on new TV movie

Production began this week in Vancouver on a new TV movie, The Town That Came A-Courtin', starring Valerie Harper, 73, who shared in early March that she is battling terminal brain cancer.

The UP cable channel announced Thursday the movie is slated to premiere in January.

The movie also stars Lauren Holly, Cameron Bancroft and Lucie Guest. Harper plays the owner of a small hotel who is trying to help kindle a romance between a widowed mayor and a successful author.

"When I learned that the remarkable Valerie Harper was interested in working, I was so excited, because that meant she was doing well," Barbara Fisher, programming chief at UP, told AP. "We are thrilled to have this iconic talent in our film and awed by her determination to live each day to the fullest. She is truly an inspiration."