What will happen to all of Lori Loughlin & Felicity Huffman’s films & TV projects?

The Women's Cancer Research Fund's An Unforgettable Evening Benefit Gala

There are like 20 million moving parts to this college-admissions bribery scandal, so I’m sorry if I’m not covering every single part, or if I temporarily miss some angle. If you want to send me a tip or suggest a certain angle that I haven’t seen, you can always tweet me at @KaiseratCB. Operation Varsity Blues has already led to the arrests of several well-known and well-connected parents and college officials. I tend to care most about the celebrities involved because yeah, this is mostly a celebrity-gossip blog. Felicity Huffman was arrested yesterday, along with several other wealthy LA-based parents. Lori Loughlin was in Vancouver for work when the FBI came to her home with the arrest warrant. She’ll be turning herself in today, and I suspect she won’t be flying out of the country any time soon. The whole thing is so embarrassing for Lori and Felicity, both of whom are consistently working actresses. So… what will Hollywood do?

The news suddenly calls into question the fate of Huffman and Loughlin’s respective upcoming projects for Netflix and the Hallmark Channel, with representatives for both companies not yet publicly commenting on the matter. The charges against Huffman come just weeks before a couple of her projects are set to debut. Along with Patricia Arquette and Angela Bassett, she is part of the ensemble cast of the Netflix comedy film “Otherhood,” which is slated to premiere April 26.

She also portrays prosecutor Linda Fairstein in “When They See Us,” Ava DuVernay’s miniseries recounting the Central Park Five case in 1990. That will premiere on the platform May 31. Huffman also recently wrapped production on the indie flick “Tammy’s Always Dying.” Representatives for Huffman and Netflix did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.

Meanwhile, Loughlin is scheduled to reprise her role as Rebecca Katsopolis in the fifth and final season of “Fuller House” (Netflix’s successful reboot of the ABC sitcom “Full House”), which the streaming giant will release this fall.

She is also part of the casts of the Hallmark Channel series “When Calls the Heart,” which is now airing its sixth season, and “Garage Sale Mystery,” which is in production. Representatives for Loughlin and Hallmark did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.

[From The LA Times]

YIKES. I mean, obviously, I could care less about what happens to Lori and Felicity’s careers, but those promotional tours are going to be awkward AF and I feel sorry for people like Ava DuVernay, who will probably be asked about this every time she tries to promote her miniseries. Also: here’s something I did not know… Felicity runs an advice-for-moms site called What the Flicka? Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Meanwhile, Lori Loughlin has already deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts, but her Facebook is still active. She tweeted and posted about her daughters all the time, so I wonder if this was even legal? Those accounts could be evidence in the federal case!!! Obstruction of justice!

The list of parents involved in this scheme is like a who’s who of prominent academics and rich bozos. What I don’t understand is… WHY? Why commit all of these crimes when that money could have gone towards tutors, SAT prep classes, elite extracurriculars and more? Or just donate some of that bribery money directly to the college and that’s perfectly f–king legal.

Eva Longoria's Hollywood Star Ceremony Post-Luncheon

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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167 Responses to “What will happen to all of Lori Loughlin & Felicity Huffman’s films & TV projects?”

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  1. Kendra says:

    Would not those accounts be able to restored for investigation? But I am not that tech savvy. She would be an idiot to delete them before asking her lawyer if she allowed however, it could get her in more trouble.

    I know you are busy with this scandal but do you have time to post about Depp/Amber court papers at some point?

    • mtam says:

      Yeah, I think most times people are “deactivating” instead of “deleting.” As long as you have the password you can log back in, and there’s archives of posts also stored, specially on Facebook, you can download all your fb data from the time you opened the account. I would think also the FBI could maybe retrieve it from those social media companies directly? if that’s possible.

      • Jan90067 says:

        The internet is forever. A good forensic tech would be able to find it on their computer. It’d probably be on their internet server as well, I’d think.

        This whole thing just has me seeing red. When I think of all the deserving kids (my nephews included!) who DIDNT get a deserved place at a school, because someone like these &$@!% who BOUGHT places for their brats…GRRRR! Listen to the vid of Loughlin’s kid, who SAYS ON VIDEO that she ONLY wants to go for the partying and tailgating; she doesn’t really even want to go to college.

        I know there have *always* been “legacy” slots at most of the private, prestigious schools. But donating a building feels a little different. That can benefit ALL the students. This….this is bribery and fraud for just YOUR kid. Feels worse somehow.

      • Roxanne Holt says:

        the way back machine has it all….
        Archive.org

    • Lady Keller says:

      Nothing is ever truly gone from the internet. If law enforcement wants her accounts they will get them.

    • Original Jenns says:

      The Feds probably froze a copy of her social media accounts long before they indicted her. So even if she deletes her accounts or specific posts, they will still have everything up to that point. That includes messengers. We use that a lot in gang prosecution cases.

      • Lorelei says:

        They’ve been investigating this case for months. Law enforcement already has anything they need.

    • Steph says:

      Since they are celebrities, fan accounts will have reposted everything anyway. It’s all still accessible. They deactivated so the public didn’t have a place to harass them.

  2. Snazzy says:

    To answer your why question – it’s because the children don’t have a work ethic, are entitled and lazy, and that comes from their parents. I have a cousin who was like that. Such a lazy shit, got kicked out of all of the best schools in Quebec and even Western Canada (he was sent to live with us in Calgary for a while. Flunked out too, of course). Finally the only school that would take him was a super elite boarding school in Switzerland. It cost a small fortune, but in that way my aunt was able to buy him a high school diploma. And since that school was all about the money, of course he had the grades to get into a Uni (in Canada, so not the same system as the US). Flunked out of uni in the end because instead of being held accountable or his grades, he was just coddled and the schools bought off: his parents never pushed any work ethic on him at all, no consequences, just excuses. These celebs and their kids are the same.

    • mtam says:

      This, exactly. Spending money on actual tutors and extra things like that, to basically force their spoiled and lazy their kids to get educated, would have been just as much a waste. This way they thought they could at least write off the bribery and get most of that money back.

    • Kitten says:

      Exactly. Why do the work when you can afford the shortcut?

    • Feebee says:

      After seeing the clip of Lori’s daughter saying she wanted the experience of game days and partying but she didn’t care about school, it seemed this is exactly the case.

    • Kate says:

      What I was pondering last night is why self-made rich people who have actually put in the work to achieve success (so I’m not considering trust fund babies) so often do not seem to value that hard work and the challenges they faced when it comes to raising their kids. Why hand everything to your kids so they never learn how to deal with a “no” or even have any kind of fear of a consequence? They take away all motivation for their kids to succeed. I think sometimes we (parents) all can get caught up in eliminating challenges and obstacles for our kids because we don’t want to see them sad or failing but it’s important to remind ourselves that it’s facing challenges and obstacles that makes us grow. On a way way smaller scale that’s something I think about a lot with my kids – like how comfortable should our lives be? How big of a birthday party should I throw them? How often should they get a new toy? It’s natural to want to give them everything I didn’t have but then I know they will 100% take that for granted.

      • Lady D says:

        Kate, you can teach them to give back. When they get a new toy or coat, have them donate an older one to a children’s charity or daycare center. (Just a suggestion.)

      • Kate says:

        @LadyD – 100%! Great suggestion and I def want to emphasize charity work as they get older

      • notasugarhere says:

        Make a habit of giving them something from Heifer for birthday or holidays. Get involved with multi-generational volunteering projects so you can all work together to make someone’s life better.

      • Jess says:

        Kate, I think about this in my own life. I had to work really hard and overcome a crappy childhood, so on the one hand I want my kids to have all of the things I didn’t. On the other hand, I don’t want them to become the spoiled brats I hated as a kid. One thing I do is volunteer a lot and talk to them about the less privileged people I’m helping, and remind them of how privileged we are. I also get them to volunteer. And I’m teaching them to speak up for and be an advocate for others. But I’m also going to give them the trips and the clothes I never got as a kid, and I still feel a bit guilty about that. Academics, however, came easier for me than my kids and I push them hard to work on their schoolwork. I’ll pay for tutors or help them myself, which is a luxury not all parents can afford, but they’re going to do the work and earn their own good grades!

    • mint says:

      Totally agree, people want results, fast, but do not want to put in the work. Plus, some of these kids might be too dumb. I mean, why bribe yourself into USC? Rob Kardashian graduated from there.. cant be that hard.

      • Kara Mailloux says:

        My nephew is an only child and the first and only grandkid – on BOTH sides! Needless to say, he is very ‘spoiled’ with toys and games and absolutely everything. However, my SIL grew up very poor so she makes sure that Felix gives his toys away, that he no longer plays with, to charity.
        The other day, he overheard my Mom (his Baba) talking about how the local animal shelter, to whom she is a devoted volunteer, was not successful in receiving some grant and they are short of money for their new shelter.
        Felix, who rec’d a $10 bill earlier in the day from his Nana (my Grandma), went to his ‘wallet’ grabbed the $10 and gave it to his Baba for food for the animals!
        So, although he is spoiled with material things, he is also spoiled with love, time, attention, and caring adults who set good examples of being a good person.
        It seems this may be what some of these rich kids are missing…ya, they may have all the material things, but do they have love, time and attention? Do they have adults in their lives setting positive examples? Doesn’t look like it.
        Monkey see = monkey do

    • noway says:

      The kids don’t need a work ethic to donate an endowment. It worked for Jared Kushner and Don Jr, plus Don Sr., in a way as he got into Penn through his brother who can’t verify as he is deceased.

  3. Ariel says:

    Do you think they did the bribes instead of the legal donations so they could pretend their kids are super smart?
    If she donated a building to get the kid in, everyone knows that’s how the kid got in.
    With the bribe she can pretend the kid is smart, got crazy good sat scores and the college really wanted the kid.

    It’s all about the facade. The image.

    These people suck at parenting.

    • Darla says:

      I think Huffman did the bribe because it was a lot cheaper. Loughlin who this cost half a mil, I don’t know. That is pure stupidity .

    • mtam says:

      I think it’s something to do with that for sure, but also because they did it through that guy’s fake charity, they could get a good tax return/incentive (I don’t really know how it works) on their “donation.”

    • Margo Smith says:

      Exactly Ariel!!! That’s why they cheated the SAT scores so they could be like “oh, your kid got a 1300? Well my daughter got a 1420. She’s soooo talented.” And now it’s all out in the open that they paid for it?!?! Hahahahaha so much schadenfreude. Don’t ever forget that karma is real!

    • Esmom says:

      Yes, I think they bribed their way in because making a huge donation is pretty darn obvious. So f%^&ing deceptive. It’s cheaper, too, as Darla said.

    • I agree!! says:

      Bribing is still cheaper than getting donating enough to get a building or library named after you — $10mill (for example) vs $500,000 AND your kid looks smart. I would think that’s the motivation.

    • KNMC says:

      If we had the money to buy a building to bribe my kid’s way into school, I would so own it. Yeah, little Chester isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but we do what we can for him.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      Yes the parents should take all the blame for how their offspring turns out – those kids lives are ruined as NO ONE will take them seriously now. EVERYONE now knows that they are stupid and that their own parents knew it as well so bribed institutions to let these dim bulbs in. As for the one who is/was the YT star, she can kiss goodbye to that – I hope the advertisers who paid her sue her for their money back as she committed fraud (and I believe she know what her parents did).

      • holly hobby says:

        Yes she knew because in the court papers, it talked about how the daughters posed with rowing equipment. If you didn’t know what your folks were doing and they ask you to pose in front of something you don’t use you would ask.

        Also damning Lori (the helicopter parent) wrote the the scam company saying that Olivia didn’t know how to fill out her college application (@?!?!) so can he do it? He had a low level staff complete her application. She was cc’d on that email. She knew.

        Not only lazy but dumb as a post. Lori should have just have her hubby give the daughter a job at the factory. School is wasted on her.

    • Victoria says:

      The irs? 🙄 they let Scientology go, I’ve lost my faith in them.

      • holly hobby says:

        No I have friends in the IRS. That is a totally separate case. They’ll be calling those two up soon. The only ones they are overlooking now a days are people who’s names start with Rump and Cushy.

        As long as Mnuchin is in charge, he’ll protect his friends. Lori and Felicity are minor players and most likely “dems” so no they will not get that consideration.

    • noway says:

      I think the bragging is part of it. Also a donation doesn’t guarantee it, but neither does good test scores. The college sport recruit is as close to a guarantee as you will get. The difference between 15K and $500K.

  4. Lisa says:

    This is a disappointing, embarrassing mess.

  5. Maya says:

    They are white so they will be fine.

    • Megan says:

      No doubt, but I find it kind of amazing that Felicity is accused of cheating on the SAT and her bond is $250,000, while R Kelly is accused of raping children and his bond is $100,000.

      • Veronica S. says:

        That may actually be as much a reflection of their actual wealth holdings, to be honest. R. Kelly is notoriously bad with money and actually had to have somebody else post his bond.

      • Kitten says:

        JFC I had no idea that R. Kelly’s bond was only 100K. Disgusting.

      • TEAM HARDY says:

        ^ THIS

      • Dani says:

        R Kelly could barely come up with the money for bond. He’s apparently so extremely broke that 100k was hard for him to get his hands on.

      • Megan says:

        It doesn’t matter how broke R Kelly is, he presents a real and continuing danger to society. A bond of $100,000 seems awfully low for someone who is a serial predator.

      • Veronica says:

        Oh, don’t get me wrong, in a perfect world, he’d be held without bail – especially since he had two victims on display on television. Financial status is taken into consideration, though the uglier reality is probably more that his victims are WOC and thus less valued.

      • holly hobby says:

        If it makes you feel better, Lori’s husband was released on a $1M bond. I think it really depends on how far they went with the crime.

      • Anna says:

        @hollyhobby Exactly. Which is why it’s so distressing to see how little of a crime the justice system seems to think rape and pedophilia are when it comes to Black girls. He went far with his crimes alright and there are Black women who will be forever traumatized by his actions.

    • Deanne says:

      Being white doesn’t guarantee they’ll be fine. Being rich and white is the golden ticket to being fine no matter what a POS human you are. A rich white kid can kill people driving drunk and then cry “affluenza” and get away with it. A rich white man can have two young black men die in separate incidences, while at his home and nothing happens. A b list actress with a rich husband like Lori Loughlin can cheat deserving students out of spot as USC so that her vapid, spoiled, entitled daughters can pretend they earned their way in.They can afford the best lawyers money can buy. Being white definitely helps, but there is a huge socio-economic factor to this kind of privilege as well.

      • Reeta Skeeter says:

        Rich people of all colours are always okay. Look at Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson.

    • Jan90067 says:

      In the end, ALL that will happen is they get slapped with huge lawyers’ fee, a huge fine, and “community service with probation “. These people, esp. Huffman and Loughlin will NEVER see jail time, even for the tax fraud part of it.

      • Lady D says:

        Wire fraud, mail fraud, tax fraud. The Feds do not play, and they are not walking away unscathed from this one.

      • Snazzy says:

        I think it’s the tax fraud that will get them on this one. Once the IRS has the bit in their teeth …

      • jan90067 says:

        Very true… but I do NOT think there will be jail time. Fines, suspended sentences/probabtion/community service. But SERIOUSLY DOUBT *ANY* jail time for these people.

      • holly hobby says:

        Financial crimes are what lands you in jail. I do think they will serve time unless they settle the case. The IRS plays hard ball.

      • noway says:

        Neither was charged with tax fraud, probably because they haven’t committed it and if that was one of the offenses William Macy would have been indicted too as they probably file joint taxes. My guess is no one has filled out the taxes yet to commit tax fraud. It’s only tax fraud if they took it as a deduction, and since they were probably last year they didn’t do it yet I’m guessing.

  6. Ader says:

    I’m kinda shocked that people are shocked by this. Genuinely thought this was common knowledge. Sure, there may be little stings like this…but these are just the ones who got caught. Kinda like how it’s always the low-level hackers who get caught…not the ones who actually know what they’re doing.

    • Veronica S. says:

      I think that’s more what’s shocking about it – how DUMB they all were about it. Like, half of them barely bothered to cover their tracks. AND some of them used the donations to commit tax fraud. No part of the government messes around less than the IRS. They were bound to get caught. You would think with that kind of money they could pay for discretion, too.

    • KA says:

      Agree. This seemed completely normal to me. Like, of course people with money are doing this. And celebrities have money, so I am not surprised to hear that they are involved. And this does seem so small potatoes. I am confident this is a situation where are few are being used as an example to the many who do this type of thing all the time.

      • Feedmechips says:

        Not surprised. I know someone who works for a fancy boarding school. His job is to “tutor” aka help rich students cheat by doing their work for them. He has been looking into finding an attorney because he wants to whistleblow.

    • Jan90067 says:

      I was driving home from my sisters last night and had on the local news on the radio. The Agent from Massachusetts was being interviewed, and he said this is only the TIP of the iceberg. They KNOW there are a LOT of others, committing this fraud, and they are coming. He actually said, “It will a lot better if you turn yourselves in before we show up at your door, but make no mistake, we WILL come for you.”.

      • Lady D says:

        Hopefully the guilty are now freaking right out imagining the same guns drawn, dawn raid, from the FBI.

      • jan90067 says:

        There are a LOT of nervous, wealthy parents dithering on what to do right about now lol

      • Bosandi says:

        My husband works with a lady who was/is involved in this mess. The Fed’s raided her home yesterday morning and took her into custody. We had no idea it was tied to this until yesterday afternoon. She’s a high school administrator. I’m in Houston, TX btw.

  7. OSTONE says:

    Why? Because of entitlement. Because they thought they would get away with it. This story has gotten me so upset, because I busted my butt in high school and graduated top of my class and I still couldn’t attend my top choice university and had to commute to school because my family couldn’t afford it. So no sympathy here for anyone who’s wealth, skin color, and privilege allows them to cheat the system and get away with it for themselves and their offspring.

    • Ader says:

      Skin Color!? Please don’t try to lump affirmative action into this. Moreover, there’s a strong argument that white women benefit the most from affirmative action. People don’t understand how it works and just let their implicit bias racism guide the way.

      https://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11682950/fisher-supreme-court-white-women-affirmative-action

      • OSTONE says:

        @ADER I am not white. I am a minority woman and said in my comment that wealthy, white people are privileged. Not sure where you understood that I was taking a dig at affirmative action?

      • Ader says:

        My bad. When you said “skin color” I jumped to a conclusion…because I live in an area where everyone is a-titter about it lately, because of kids applying to schools. Thanks for the correction. 🙂

      • Lula says:

        I studied this in grad school, and it’s veterans who benefitted most from affirmative action policies, followed by white women. And what’s actually happened as a result is that white women have flooded higher education, and so schools that take into account things like gender and race now tend to benefit men more, as they seek to maintain a balance. Which I find interesting because it seems like I hear a lot more men complaining about things like affirmative action and how hard it is to be a white male.

      • Natalia says:

        Sorry Ader and Lula that argument doesn’t fly with me. A white friend of mine had a 4.0 grade point average (this was before the 5.0 system). She could not get into graduate school in 1973 because of affirmative action.

        Now, of course, there are far far far many more graduate schools than back then so the study may to an extent be correct. But back then there weren’t very many grad schools and white people just were not getting into them.

      • Ader says:

        So, are you saying that because one person you know didn’t get into one school, that means….what exactly?

        Are you really saying she couldn’t get into school because they weren’t letting white people in? Really? Or are you trying to say that an “undeserving black person” got in, instead?

        You can believe what you want. The cumulative data and facts are against you. By the way, I grew up in a white town, and every single one of the women on my block went to grad school in the 1970s….so….if you want to play the anecdote game, there ya go.

      • Grewyacke says:

        Natalia, I think that was an isolated incident. The professoriate was predominately white through the 80s and 90s. They all went to grad school in the 70s and 80s. I work in higher education, and the professoriate at universities large and small is still mostly white.

      • Cate says:

        Sorry, what? A white woman couldn’t get into grad school because of affirmative action? That is ridiculous. I am a white female and I have two graduate degrees. In both of my degree programs, the students were overwhelmingly white. We also had a hefty number of women (though I was in a STEM field, so not as heavy as in some other disciplines). The vast majority of female faculty that I know are also white.

        Your friend may not have been able to get into grad school DESPITE affirmative action (i.e., maybe a less qualified man took her place), or she might simply not have been a good fit for whatever programs she was interested in, but there’s simply no way she didn’t get in just so a less qualified minority could have her slot.

      • Natalia says:

        I didn’t know just one white girl that didn’t get into grad school. I was using her as an example. There were many, many others who did not get in back then, but you know what? Being the Social Justice Warrior liberal progressive that I am, my philosophy was, and I told myself, “ok girl you only have a 3.6 – go get a job. You’re not getting into grad school, it’s time for the people of color to have their turn.” End of story. I was just making a point about white people not being able to get into grad school at that point in time.

      • Ader says:

        Calgon, where the eff are you!?

        A white person with a lot more patience to deal with the Natalias of the world is gonna have to explain to her why her last post is a mess. I’m out.

      • Natalia says:

        Ader dear, 1973 was 46 years ago. I wont be alive in 46 years but I would love to be, just so I could see a younger person claim that YOUR thought process from YOUR youth is ridiculous.

        It WILL happen. 🍿

      • Ader says:

        Natalia, I have no idea what you’re talking about. All I know is that you don’t understand how affirmative action works, and you’re refusing to look at the facts. Human memories are notoriously faulty, by the way.

      • Lorelei says:

        @Natalia, how generous of you to “let the people of color have their turn!”

        /s

    • noway says:

      This is cheating, but what Jared Kushner’s Dad and Donald Trump did for their kids isn’t. They just donated millions to the school of choice. I guess it’s better, but still not merit. Reality with these uber elite schools, unless you are Johns Hopkins and get a billion dollar endowment from Bloomberg, you are going to have problems meeting all student’s needs. Which is what they claim to do. The way they do it is allow some of these uber rich idiots offspring in, to counteract all normal people who probably have at max $30K a year for school. They should just admit it, and all normal people realize some spots are taken by the wealthy. Welcome to life.

  8. deezee says:

    Yeah I wonder what will happen with their projects. In Lori’s case, as her show is filmed in Vancouver, and these are federal charges, she will probably be barred from entering the country. This means her show will probably be cancelled, as one of the benefits of filming north of the border is financial. That’s a lot of people having to pay the price of her two daughters going to USC.

    • mtam says:

      Yeah, I feel really bad for the people involved in those projects with them. Specially the ones that had already started production.

    • KNMC says:

      The judge already said it would be “reasonable” for her to travel for work. Imagine saying that if she were a WOC.

      • deezee says:

        The judge can say that all he/she wants, doesn’t mean Border Services will let her into Canada. For instance, after Martha Stewart went to prison, she had to go through a LOT of hoops to let into Canada for work/charity events. The Canadian government is quite strict on letting in criminals and alleged (in this instance) criminals.

      • holly hobby says:

        Yes Canada is quite strict about letting criminals into the country. She would have to deal with a lot of red tape to travel up North.

    • lucy2 says:

      I feel bad for the crew of Lori’s show. Maybe the producers can just replace her with someone else? Let’s be honest, she’s not some amazing, unique talent.

      I imagine the completed work will air as planned, and then they will have to make casting changes.

      • It’sJustBlanche says:

        Yes, just replace her. She’s just a pretty face who can say some words. No one cares.

      • mtam says:

        @Lucy2, @It’sJustBlanche
        It’s not as easy to just replace her. I don’t now details from the current production, but I would imagine they got some funding for the project because she was attached to it.

        There’s also the consideration of everything they’ve spent shooting already, plus the pre and post-production costs, and w.e contract stipulations there are protecting her employ. They also have to consider the crew, who are contracted for a set amount of time, delays and re-shoots could mean having to hire all new crew, which takes time, and that adds up + consider the rest of the cast if they are going to re-cast her and start re-shooting scenes–that could mean adding extra rehearsal days, perhaps even chemistry reads, re-worked contracts and more pay for all the cast and crew for the re-shoots or added days, perhaps flying people out again, hotel costs again, if it’s a new actress that means the wardrobe budget will have to increase, and that could mean extra prep days and fittings, etc. etc….. The production might not be able to sustain those added costs.

        It might save them more money to just shut it down, or find someway to create a story with her missing from it somehow.

    • Lorelei says:

      I’m sorry but I can’t stop laughing at “Garage Sale Mystery.”

      It won’t be a huge loss for the world if this project never sees the light of day.

      • Darla says:

        Oh god my mom lives with me and she watches it. It’s so bad. It really is garbage. I threaten to put her in a home over that hallmark stuff. But she hates trump. If she was a republican she would be in a shady brook already, like I always tell her. The hallmark stuff is bad though, and I personally think this one in particular is up there with the absolute worse of that channel.

      • Lorelei says:

        Shady Brook!! 😂

  9. Maddie23 says:

    I had to pay my own way through school. I wish my parents had that kind of money to send me to college, let alone bribe someone. No sympathy for any of them that got caught.

  10. Karen2 says:

    Time for a reporter to go to the other Housewives & get their opinions. Plse.

  11. Sara says:

    The story of the Central Park Five is so important and I’m sure the miniseries is good. But now any lesson it teaches or impact it makes will also be tainted because one of its stars is happy to present herself as moral to the public but is a crook behind closed doors. The fact that Huffman is in it is absolutely PERFECT for any Trump supporter (or Trump himself) who wants to call the truth or importance of the story into question.

    • Mia4s says:

      Well one small advantage for the Central Park Five miniseries is that the woman Huffman is playing is the one who helped wrongfully convict them (oh, and later helped silence a complaint against Weinstein), so it’s not like she’s playing a heroic character that this would taint. But yes unfortunately this is going to hang over the promotion.

  12. Chef Grace says:

    I doubt seriously anything will happen to their acting jobs. If 45 and his minions get away with treason a few entitled celebs can get away with buying an education for their brats.
    This pisses me off because my two kids still have loans to pay off. But at least they got into university without cheating.

  13. Darla says:

    I thought Don Jr. played a role in Loughlin deleting her account. He retweeted an old tweet of hers mocking her. That puts a million magats on her.

    Don’t get me wrong please, I do not feel sorry for her. But that garbage bag mocking anyone else for criminal behavior is quite something, yes?

    • Veronica S. says:

      Criminal behavior that his family likely committed the same, at that. Like anybody really believes this man is Wharton educated proper.

      • Darla says:

        It’s amazing. I would be laying low. They are such a garbage family.

      • Esmom says:

        Don Junior can’t help but jump into the fray with his pettiness and sanctimony and complete lack of self awareness. I swear he gets obsessed. He was obsessed with the Smollett case, too.

        There’s no way he got into college on his own (dubious) merits.

    • Jamie says:

      So ironic. Don Jr., like his father before him, benefited from rich white man’s affirmative action. He had no business at Penn.

    • Mary says:

      Don Jr is the son of our president and he spends his time harassing people on twitter. How pathetic.

    • Christine says:

      He did the same to Huffman. He’s loving this because it lets him do what his family does best – deflect by pointing the finger at someone else doing something wrong.

    • Sara says:

      Ugh, I don’t know where Donny Jr. gets off. Everyone knows the Trump kids are dumb as rocks. If the Orange Idiot didn’t do something like Lori did, he sure as hell made legal donations to get his kids in to their colleges.

    • noway says:

      Yes Felicity and Lori are the most popular, but they put out the donations of all the 50 people and it’s split pretty evenly among Dems/Republicans plus a lot of this happened in parts of Texas too which is pretty conservative in areas. I wouldn’t be throwing bricks yet, cause honestly this is apolitical, and I’m sure some crazy Fox network people will come up soon too. Trumps just dig in though and go further. It seems to be a family trait.

  14. Tiffany says:

    Eh….I don’t care. Felicity comes from serious family money and Lori and her husband aren’t hurting either.

    The embarrassment will pass and they will be welcomed to the country club in no time.

  15. Tanguerita says:

    Well, I don’t know much about Huffman’s daughters, but Aunt Becky’s offspring is supremely stupid and entitled. No money in the world would have made her learn for SAT or sit down with tutors. “I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend,” she shared with her nearly 2 million subscribers, after explaining her extensive work schedule. “But I’m gonna go in and talk to my deans and everyone, and hope that I can try and balance it all. But I do want the experience of like game days, partying…I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.”
    https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/celebrity-kid-called-spoiled-privileged-brat-saying-shes-going-college-game-days-partying-190101738.html
    I am so angry. So many people who work their asses off to get in and then you have this little vapid POS that would give Kardashians a run for their money.

    • KNMC says:

      Yeah-at least the Kardashians are hard workers. They’re horrible people, but they never stop. These kids just had everything handed to them.

    • Scal says:

      And now the world knows she was so stupid she couldn’t even figure out how to fill out the application-so mom and dad had to pay someone to fill out the entire thing for her 🙄

      She’s not bad at being a Instagram thing and she’s got a makeup line. Why not support that instead of bribing her way into a education where she won’t pass and won’t get anything out of it? Just to be able to brag to your mom friends. It’s insane

    • perplexed says:

      I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually think the Kardashians are smarter. Most of them opted not to go to school anyway and decided to simply monetize their abilities for reality tv. They know what their strengths are.

    • Sara says:

      Lori could have avoided this all by having Olivia apply to Kris to be one of the Jenner girls’ newest besties on the show. Earn that paycheck.

  16. adastraperaspera says:

    I think they’ll release the current projects and not include them in the publicity. Then, I really think work will dry up for them both. This is a crime that kicks all of us in the teeth, and I don’t think an apology tour will ever fix it. I hope we see serious investigations now of college sports departments, and also force universities to do away with the “donations for entry” scams.

  17. Rachel says:

    This is all about the fact that these people screwed over the IRS. They want their pound of flesh.

  18. Claire says:

    My first time posting. I think it’s interesting that the press has focused on two actresses involved in this scheme, and I understand why from the celebrity gossip standpoint. This is our way into this story — we can easily visualise them. However, I hope that as Operation Varsity Blues gets more coverage this week, we start hearing about the other wealthy peeps who participated in this mess, as they likely represent well-known companies, hedge funds and institutions. Otherwise it will be a case of two females carrying the can for other, much richer and more powerful people.

    That’s not a critique of you, Kaiser, as you are doing a great job of covering the moving parts. I just felt it was worth pointing out in the comments. I appreciate that this site goes above and beyond merely covering Hollywood gossip (delving into Royals and politics too) and aims to reflect our culture (popular and otherwise).

  19. Peanutbuttr says:

    Felicity Huffman’s daughter got something like a 1000 on her PSATs. Test prep can get you about a 100-200 point boost on your score and 1200 isn’t going to cut it at elite schools unless you play a sport. And it sounds like the scheme targeted rich parents who didn’t have the money to buy a building.

    • Cate says:

      A couple like Huffman and Macy though, even if they didn’t have tens of millions, they have a LOT of social capital to trade on. And a 1000 is not an amazing PSAT score but it’s not hopeless either, certainly with some heavy duty studying it could bump up to 1200, which is at least respectable if not “elite” level for someone with no connections. Seems they could have spent the money on test prep, made a reasonably (6-figure) donation to the school, and worked out some quiet deal where Huffman or Macy does something with cachet, like teaching a drama masterclass or headlining a speaker series–something that would make the school look better and attract a higher caliber of student/donor. It would have made the parents look good too!

      Loughlin is not as well known so maybe she didn’t have the same name brand to trade on, but…wouldn’t most business schools love to have someone like Mossimo coming in for a guest lecture on entrepreneurship?

      It’s well known that some students are in university because they have $$$ or family connections that can parlay into $$$, despite being personally dumb as rocks…there are legal, if ethically distasteful, ways of getting your child into a decent school. These parents all seem to have been exceptionally stupid.

    • noway says:

      Your thinking could hurt other kids, and it’s not true. So far my daughter has gone up from the first time she took the PSAT to her last SAT in a year and half time span 350 points, and she doesn’t cheat too anxiety prone. A fair amount of her friends are doing the same thing, although some went down a lot too. I’m still amazed someone was able to take the test for someone else as they require id and pictures taken before to verify who you are – several people were involved in that scenario. I was told by the tutor I hired your scores can change a lot but it depends on the kid and why they scored the way they did. Her problem is math, and she went up dramatically cause some of the material she hadn’t covered. Plus a lot of these kids taking it now have been caught in common core nightmare and switching methods and have weird gaps in their math learning. Plus her tutor routinely says he averages 200+ increases in math alone. I mean people are gaming these now, and it is why the college board put Kahn academy online free for tutorials cause it helps the not as wealthy have a fairer playing field. Also, it’s why a lot of school are going test optional too, and the paying someone to take the tests has to add to the scenario too.

  20. Barbara says:

    Skip college and get a reality show, that’s where the money is these days. STUPID STUPID parents.

  21. KNMC says:

    You pose the question why didn’t they just pay for tutors, prep courses, etc? Because that would have meant their entitled, spoiled, vapid spawn would have had to have put in hard work and effort.

  22. Myriam says:

    My question is what will happen to the kids. Will they be kicked out? Have their admissions be revoked? This may be done on a trial to trial basis, but I think some of these kids should be kicked out.

    • Katrina says:

      @Myriam- USC stated it would expel the kids who knew about the scheme and review the others on a case by case basis.

    • Jan90067 says:

      Schools will be “reviewing”. Guess they’ll look at those photoshopped photos? Kids who got in on athletic teams but never showed up for the orientation, or dropped the team shortly after, but weren’t able to still stay in school?

      I think you won’t hear of any others but the celebrity kids in this sting. As for the others, and you know there are others yet to come, as little fuss will be made as possible (perhaps only upon notification from the FBI that little Johnie’s or Joanna’s parents are involved in this fraud).

      • Cee says:

        I actually read the transcripts. They got early admittance as X sport recruit but because they weren’t recipients of any athletic/sport scholarship they weren’t required to make the team, go to practice, etc.

  23. mycomment says:

    a new plotline for hallmark.. they could make a series out of this.

    here’s a storyline:

    An Ohio mother’s attempt to provide her daughters with a better education has landed her behind bars.
    Kelley Williams-Bolar was convicted of lying about her residency to get her daughters into a better school district. …
    But it wasn’t her Akron district of residence, so her children were ineligible to attend school there, even though her father lived within the district’s boundaries.

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-mom-jailed-sending-kids-school-district/story?id=12763654

    • Lucia says:

      That woman was African-American, I believe so of course they laid the hammer down. Lori, Felicity, etc will likely get a slap on the wrist.

    • JadedBrit says:

      @MyComment 90210 had the same plot line: Andrea Zuckerman didn’t live in the West Beverly catchment area, so used her grandmother’s address to enable her to get a good education. Of course, it being a soap opera, Everything Worked Out in the End.
      What I found most horrifying/illuminating was the public school official’s response – that the tax money needed to stay where the students lived. I wasn’t aware – and I’m British, so please forgive me for not knowing a great deal about the American educational system – that the quality of education received is directly contingent upon the amount of taxes paid, which is the essence of a private school education, surely? I thought that education was *supposed* to be free and of equal quality across the board, regardless of taxes paid? Or am I being hopelessly naive?

      • Jan90067 says:

        Not any more, but in CA, it USED to be.

        In 1965 when I was about 8, my parents moved us into Beverly Hills for the schools. We could barely afford it, literally, barely, NO money for ANYTHING extra, but my parents felt the higher taxes/mortgage was worth it and scrimped and worked their asses off, and we kids better do the same or else! Back then, BH schools were considered the top in the nation, and they were supported by local tax dollars.

        A Calif. court case, called “The Serrano Decision “ came out in the 70’s, I believe, that stated ALL local tax dollars must be sent to Sacramento to be sent back to the school districts, “equally and fairly”. Of course, you know Orwell: “some of us are more equal than others”. So while the budgets were slashed, communities like Beverly Hikks, with very affluent families, could hold fundraisers for the schools for the “extras” (field trips, computers, smaller classes/more teachers ratio, etc).

        So, no, it’s still NOT equal across the board.

      • Coco says:

        Unfortunately, the law here is that public schooling is paid for by the property taxes of a particular district. If you live in a wealthy district with million dollar homes, schools benefit. If you live in a poverty stricken area, schools reflect that. It’s an awful system to keep money with the affluent whose kids already benefit from wealth. All children should have an equal shot at a properly funded education.

      • C-Shell says:

        @JadedBrit — that’s a fair question. That “free” education is funded by property (and other*) taxes paid into the school district by residents there (or consumers who spend their money there). That’s why the quality can vary drastically — even within a school district as is the case where I live. Certain schools located in or adjacent to more desirable areas attract better teachers, administrators, volunteers, etc. Schools serving the lower income areas don’t and so the quality of the education suffers. The school kids get locked into the trajectory of that quality, so kids going to the better staffed and funded schools obviously do better, and the others stay in the cycle of low income or poverty reflected in their schools. Don’t get me started on the Trumpettes’ efforts to eliminate free breakfasts and lunches in the schools for disadvantaged kids. I seethe.

        * Some states that have lotteries have gotten voter approval by pledging that proceeds will help fund public education, which is an excellent trade off IMO.

      • Veronica S. says:

        Oh, it’s *supposed* to be equal education. The United States even had a major court case over it in the 20th century. The problem is that the system is inherently racist and classist because schools are funded by property taxes. So the residents pay for the schools, which of course means that many schools are severely underfunded if they’re in lower income areas with cheaper housing. (And why a lot of them were hit very hard in the 2008 recession when the mill levy failed for the first time in a century.) The way it *should* have been addressed was by requiring states to divvy up the tax funding between school districts, but you know rich people would be throwing fits about it. Add in the “no child left behind” nonsense that rips funding from underperforming schools, and you’ve got today’s mess.

        This is also, by the way, why I believe in abolishing private schools. If you force rich people to send their children to public schools, they’re forced to invest in the local infrastructure.

      • jan90067 says:

        C-Shell, I have to tell you, here in CA, when the lottery first started to “help” schools, the West Hollywood school I was teaching at got only $3K a year, for 3 yrs., and then it dried up. The lottery money was siphoned off for other things. So no, districts couldn’t count on that tiny drip anymore.

      • C-Shell says:

        @jan90067 man, that’s disheartening. I lived in Texas when this was on the table, but haven’t done follow up research to know how it’s played out. I know in the first years, it was a windfall, but then, we also had GWB as governor and his first foray into No Child Left Behind, so that’s a counterbalance, I’d have to say.

    • AG-UK says:

      I kept reading all of this and Aunty Becky and I kept asking myself who the hell is that NOW I realise and sitting here laughing out loud. I use to watch Hallmark and Lifetime and my husband would always say no matter what it was “Give me back my baby”. This entire mess is depressing. Not sure what they were thinking.

  24. Eric says:

    Holy Cripies, Batman!

    Now Lacy Charvet and Candice Cameron Bure will have to step up their Hallmark games!

    • Relli80 says:

      But can they handle what they find at the garage sales? Alison Sweeney, Kellie Martin, Courtney Thorne-Smith… you are officially on notice.

  25. tuille says:

    One parent spent $6,500,000 for his kid’s admission. I don’t understand why he didn’t just give the kid that money & say “Have a nice life. Forget college that would prep you for any actual work.” His kid must have been at the bottom of the barrel to need that much bribery to get into a school.
    The extent of deception some people went to is comical. One guy, member of his local school board, packaged his kid as a skilled football kicker & punt receiver. The kid was at a small private school that didn’t even have a football team.

    • lucy2 says:

      OMG. How on earth was this worth $6.5 million? Insanity.

    • Lorelei says:

      Not one person in the admissions office noticed that his school didn’t even have a football team?!

      Unbelievable.

      • Cee says:

        Oh yes, they did. The scam goes deep into Admissions offices. Heads of athletic programs are in it, too. This is how the scam worked for so long – EVERYONE was involved.

      • Lorelei says:

        @Cee, no I know that there were school administrators and coaches being paid off, but it seems like there would be lots of other employees in an admissions office at a school this size that the application would have to pass through, and not *all* of them were involved?

        This story is so crazy though, who even knows what was going on behind the scenes.

      • Sara says:

        I read a tennis coach at Georgetown was arrested. So yes, people who work/ed at the schools knew.

      • cheche says:

        Sara The Georgetown coach was arrested for vouching for these “athletes “. If an applicant is trying for admission so they can play a sport, the application is going to get kicked over to the coaching staff for that sport. They’re the people who do the recruiting and can evaluate better than the admission office. So if someone was aiming for Georgetown, they would claim to be a tennis player and this guy would vouch for them. He’d write up a bogus evaluation and pocketed nearly 3 million. This was Singer’s MO. He would funnel his clients though people he was paying off. He only needed a few key people not whole admin offices.

      • noway says:

        In fairness to Georgetown they noticed the tennis recruiting was weird and Georgetown fired him last academic year, and Georgetown was working with the FBI to figure it out. The tennis coach is now coaching at Rhode Island, but I believe they suspended him when he was indicted.

  26. Jb says:

    OR go to a college you can get into. One of a million that would probably have loved a $250,000 donation towards a new fellowship or scholarship fund or endowed chair or (head is exploding) f***ing anything?????

  27. My3cents says:

    Full house just got a lot fuller, with Aunt Becky’s kids not going off to college. It could be worked into the script.
    In the end everyone will learn their lesson and hug it out.

  28. Murphy says:

    They’ll both be left out of the publicity tours. Lori will be out of the game for a few years but will probably get a few more Hallmark-type gigs down the line. Fuller House was already over so things were going to be winding down for her anyway so the timing really isn’t too bad for her and doesn’t seem like she’s the breadwinner in the family anyway.
    Felicity, I don’t see it affecting her career that much.

  29. Lizzie says:

    i’ve never been so happy to be a mediocre student who got into a college that was resoundingly FINE.

    in fact, i was so mediocre a student that when i go a small scholarship to my college, my parents were thrilled until 3 years into school i worked in the admissions office and realized i should have been getting TRIPLE the scholarship based on my high school grades and credentials and they made a slip up….for 3 years…haha

  30. Mary says:

    I want to know if the students will be charged for this. MOST of the students sound as if they were complicit in this cheating scam.

    I imagine they were minors and werent committing the tax evasion piece of it that the FBI cares about but they most certainly should be dropped from their schools. Their degrees will be meaningless anyways because everyone will know they didn’t deserve them.

  31. mk says:

    Why? I will tell you why. Wealth Gap that’s why. Tax these people at 90% and you’ll clear up all of this nonsense. These people have too much money.

    • Mary says:

      I also think this is a strong message to the UBER wealthy who are doing this type of thing. They seem to have busted the d-list celebrity/d-list CEO type.

      I think this is to send a signal to the more powerful / untouchable A-list CEOS / the A List of society (the bezos, the trumps, those type of POWERFUL connected wealth etc) that are doing these type of things. The feds have probably made a lot of THOSE wealthy parents nervous in past 24 hours.

    • Veronica S. says:

      Tax them at 90% and they’d still be incredibly wealthy because our brackets are stacked. It’s not a flat fee across the board. That’s part of why they purposefully mislead people as to how the tax system works. They want you to think being rich is ~very unfair~ when they realistically have plenty with which to live well.

  32. CES says:

    What will happen you ask? Absolutely nothing. Community service at the most. Rich white people can get away with murder

    • holly hobby says:

      IRS doesn’t do community service. Those who took their donation as a tax write off will be given jail time.

    • noway says:

      I don’t know they are women. We put Martha Stewart in jail.

  33. intheknow says:

    Saying this bit first… I am clearly biased due to my personal trauma. My parents, mostly my mother treated me like utter crap. I didn’t do drugs, or misbehaved or anything. I worked part time my entire high school years to pay for supplies and books so they didn’t have to + I loved working and I am glad I did work as I learned a lot and met people who ensured I’d end up some place OK in life. My parents didn’t attend my high school graduations..my best friends parents came to see me graduate. I manage to make it to University (I am Canadian that’s what we call College). I got student loans guaranteed by the government, but had to wait until I was 23 years old to qualify because my parents (mostly my mother) decided she didn’t give a shit and wouldn’t even sign the papers to say they aren’t helping me.

    Come time to graduate university, it was my then BF (no ex husband) and his parents who came to see me get my degree/diploma.

    When I got into university, I came home one night from work and found ALL my clothes outside in a garbage bag. To this day, I don’t know what prompted it. I picked up what I could and went to my best friends parents who housed my for 2 years, I slept on their floor. Worked saved up what I could and eventually got a place on my own. My mother said to me ‘ you think you are better than me’ grabbed me my the hair and pulled. Again, no idea what prompted this. She said I think I was better than her. She was my mother.. I adored her and looked up to her. Except then I didn’t even realize how abused I was. I was well into my 30s before I realized.

    The above said, I am struggling a bit to see what is wrong with this (I know the illegal aspects are illegal) beyond, what I see are parents who would do ANYTHING to make sure their kids futures are secure. I don’t know which is worse..parents like mine or parents like Huffman and Lori.

    Which version would I take, I’d take Huffman and Lori because the alternative damages you for life. I am in my 40s and to this day I will ugly cry and sob like a child when I think back about everything. I am ugly crying right now because just remembering is like a being stabbed in the heart with a million sharp lethal tiny knives.

    That’s all I have on the issue.

  34. Reece says:

    *sigh* Why is it always USC in these thngs?
    Then again one of their nicknames here in LA is University of Spoiled Children.

    Someone said it up thread but I’ll say it too. If it wasn’t them it would have been someone else with money getting their kids into college through bribery. Honestly, how do people think Bush Jr. got into Yale?

  35. Lanne says:

    #auntbeckychallenge

  36. Maxie says:

    Both hers and her husband’s bonds were one millions. Huffman only was 250K which shows that it wasn’t as severe.

  37. Sparkly says:

    I was really disappointed to learn all this. I only had nostalgic fondness for Loughlin (not enough to ever watch Fuller House), but I really liked Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy. I also don’t understand why they didn’t put that money toward their children’s education and *actual* betterment. Sounds like they had plenty of projects. Why didn’t they teach their kids to be hard workers too?

    Loughlin is particularly gross and disturbing, faking sports participation and oh-welling her daughter’s inability to even fill out the basic form knowing it was a sure thing. These people have really done their kids a disservice. Now their careers will suffer, probably their kids’ too, and they may have cost entire production crews their jobs. I hope they’re ashamed. Probably only of getting caught.

  38. Svea says:

    The kids don’t want it and are not interested. They only care about social media. You can’t force them to be intellectually curious or to work hard.
    Anyway, I wish the other shoe would drop and the feds started looking at the institutions themselves and all the bribes they take in the form of donations. It aint a donation if your kid suddenly gets in without merit.