American actor Mario Lopez is set to play KFC’s longtime mascot Colonel Sanders in a Lifetime channel holiday romance, both companies announced on Monday (December 7), as marketing and entertainment converge to boost sales of the chain’s fried chicken.

The steamy film, titled A Recipe for Seduction, purportedly tells the story of a young chef with a secret fried chicken recipe who disrupts a woman’s plan to marry off her heiress daughter to a handpicked suitor.

The hunky Lopez, 47, is featured in the film poster clad in Sanders’ trademark white shirt, black tie, glasses and goatee and clutching a young woman in a red dress.

Already, the post has triggered hundreds of comments on social media; a few Twitter users cracked a giggle while most just asked ‘why?’.

Lopez is known for his role in the TV series Saved by the Bell and as a host of entertainment news show Extra.

KFC, a unit of Yum! Brands Inc, urged viewers to curl up with a bucket of chicken to watch the 15-minute film, which will debut on the Lifetime cable network on this Sunday, December 13.