We knew as soon as Lori Loughlin started pushing the narrative that she’s just a humble faith-based mom who would do anything for her children. We knew it would eventually come to this: Lori and Mossimo Giannulli running to People to perform their outrage at being treated like common criminals. They’re crying to People because they’re being called CHEATERS. They can’t believe anyone would dare to criticize THEM. That anyone would dare think they are the villains.
Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli don’t appreciate the backlash over their alleged involvement in the college admissions cheating scam. After pleading not guilty earlier this week, a source tells PEOPLE that the couple resents how the case is playing out in the public eye.
“This is putting unspeakable stress on her and her family,” a source close to Loughlin tells PEOPLE. “They’re having to play this all out publicly, and they’re fair game for jokes and memes, but also outraged [by] people who are saying that they are cheaters.”
“They’re being destroyed,” the source adds.
On Monday, the couple pled not guilty to both charges they face in the case: mail fraud and money laundering conspiracy. A source previously told PEOPLE that the plea was the “only choice” they had after rejecting an offer for a deal from prosecutors. But with the plea now comes the possibility of a trial.
“The idea of going to trial is terrifying for Lori,” says the source close to the actress. “Everything comes out in trial, whether or not it’s relevant to the case. She will be under a microscope, and you only have to look at the paparazzi outside the court to know that there is widespread interest in this case. She will lose every bit of her privacy, and that’s a shame. This really is a family matter.”
If Lori hates being called a “cheater,” just wait until the gals in prison give her a nickname. I think Hallmark Bitch has a nice ring to it. I mean, this People article is a work of art, if you consider white privilege and obliviousness ART. “This really is a family matter,” when her $500K scheme included scamming the NCAA, a California university and multistate fraud. “They’re fair game for jokes and memes, but also outraged [by] people who are saying that they are cheaters” – OH NO NOT MEMES. How will she ever survive becoming a meme, you guys?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Backgrid.
Its not a family matter though. What they did is illegal.
I can honestly believe that they don’t think they are cheaters though. If you know enough people who do “something” to help their kids get into college, it just becomes a matter of degrees, and I’m sure she was assured that fake crew pictures are just “par for the course and everyone does it.” It doesn’t mean she’s not stupid, or didn’t cheat, I just think her privileged bubble is so thick that she probably really doesn’t “get” what was so wrong about this.
You may well be right…and I’ll bet they would be willing to give up some of those friends who have done the same thing so that they might get a no-prison deal.
She can’t claim she didn’t “cheat” when they SPECIFICALLY went through this guy and then wrote it ALL off on her taxes as a “charitable contribution”. That was the point of using Rick Singer.
Also, a “regular” donation to a college, while also a write off, wouldn’t guarantee her kid a spot necessarily. Singer DID. Hence, the choice to go down that road.
Yeah, bribery, fraud and tax evasion is not a “family matter”, this family is so moronic it makes me irate. This source and these articles are doing them a disservice in my mind, I hate them even more now.
This “article” in Kneepads (ie People) is pure damage control PR: “when people see you for what you are (entitled cheaters and criminals), GO ON THE OFFENSIVE. Claim holiness, love of family, UNFAIRNESS, false portrayals, and above all, BEING UNFAIRLY DESTROYED.” It’s classic 21st century PR BS, eaten up with a spoon by People. Wish everyone would watch Anna Paquin in Flack for a real look at the depths PR agencies go to protect their craven, moronic, monstrous, entitled, and in-denial celebrity clients.
And it’s bad Loughlin’s idiot “influencer” daughter was found partying on a boat belonging to the USC president when the story broke. Doesn’t exactly seem kosher, does it?
Kate, ding ding ding!!!!!!!
….I think they are as dumb as a bag of hammers.
The USC president wasn’t on the boat at the time. It was his daughter and her friends (Olivia Jade included) on the yacht for spring break. That’s what entitled white kids do for spring break.
they also knowingly committed tax fraud and, essentially, money laundering for that college advisor guy. “donated” to a faux charity in an offshore tax haven that they knew was a front for this guys account. they HAD to know that was wrong. even knowing how wrong it was, they were probably STILL like “eh, what’s the big deal?”
These are possibly two of the dumbest people on earth.
Don’t worry, you guys. Her faith will see her through. 🙄
Thoughts and prayers to her.
😂😂😂😂^^^^^THIS!
LOL. Thanks @ByTheSea
Tots and pears….
Where was all this faith when she was committing federal crimes? 🙄 She’s insufferable. Also…if you cheat, you might get called a cheater. There’s no sense in being outraged when the chickens come home to roost.
You know God does not help with college work. That’s the only thing God absolutely refuses to help with. There’s actually a sentence in the Bible, “…college application aid not included…” And Lori had learned this at her Bible-classes and that’s why she made some arrangements.
Where was her faith in her kids??
saddest part, right here. Don’t push your “family matter” BS on me unless you want to address the part where you couldn’t own up to the fact that your kids weren’t getting into a “good enough” school without this level of interference.
Right? Where was her ‘faith’ that her kids would be fine without her cheating them into a college of her choosing that at least one of them didn’t even want to be in for the sake of her own status, at the expense of some probably less wealthy student who worked hard to be there? That the privilege they already had would be enough? It doesn’t seem like Lori Loughlin or her husband are ready to acknowledge the fact that they hold the most responsibility for any stress that may be on their family over this.
The “thou shalt not steal” part of the Bible pretty much covers this situation too.
What would Jesus do? (eye roll)
Who Would Jesus Bribe?!
I see she is claiming she was manipulated by Singer, knew she was breaking some rules but had no idea she was breaking actual laws. She knows she will be cleared when she can explain this to the judge. Sure Jan.
Generally speaking, when I write a $500,000 check to a fake charity, I know things aren’t exactly above board.
This! What rules did she think she was breaking? I mean, like don’t leave your grocery cart in a parking space rule? This phrase I keep seeing makes my brain hurt because I genuinely don’t understand what rules she thought she was breaking?! And how those rules didn’t back up directly to actual laws, in her mind?
Yeah, I think it’s the money laundering that’s really going to get them in the end. Declaring that a tax deduction was the nail in the coffin on the argument of whether they understood exactly what they were doing.
so he knew she had college aged kids and initiated contact with her based on that, then proceeded to manipulate her into breaking the law to guarantee her kids admission to USC? Her husband flipped out that a guidance counselor caught on to what they were doing, that’s evidence that they knew full well what they were doing was wrong
Can you imagine being the lawyers representing these 2 morons? Even if they aren’t the best and brightest that $$$$ can buy, I’m pretty sure they gave the CHEATERS sound legal advice which is not only being ignored, but undermined. Felicity is looking better and better everytime these 2 clowns are mentioned!
She must really be super dumb. Not surprising though.
They are not “called” cheaters. It’s not a nickname. They are cheaters.
So effing oblivious!
I really, really, really hope she goes to prison. Serves her right.
She should have taken a page from Felicity Huffman’s book and taken the plea and just disappear for a while. Then do an apology tour. Book about Jesus helping in prison. Reality show.
But no! She had to play all innocent! Dumb!
She must be used to getting her way in life.
That’s just it – nothing stopped her until now and it’s an unfamiliar experience.
She just keeps tossing gasoline on the flames of her reputation.
I think she’s use to her ‘celebrity’ getting her what she wants. This is probably the most press she’s ever gotten in her entire career so of course she’s gonna milk it.
I don’t think this is just reach people/celebrity entitlement. This, very much, smacks of the attitude of a large segment of conservative Christians that everything they do is OK just by virtue of “their faith,” & they are automatically forgiven (so they can just do as they please).
They are employing a really terrible PR strategy. Felicity is the example of how to do this as well as possible in this situation. Lori’s approach just reeks of clueless privilege and arrogance and has had the opposite approach of softening public opinion. They need to stop leaking to People, step back and rethink how they’re going about this, but they’re so convinced of their own specialness that they’re incapable of doing that.
I was just going to type this, their PR strategy is horrible. it makes me wonder if they even have public relations who are leaking anything or if the tabloids are fabricating all this for sales. Huffman did so much better coping an early plea then staying out of the public eye.
Felicity must be delighted. This story has gone from ‘Felicity and Lori’ to ‘Lori, Lori, Lori (oh yes, and Felicity pleaded out)’.
@tia: that’s what I was thinking, Felicity is lucky Lori is such a fool. And, who came up with this faith-based PR campaign?! Are the reader of People actually buying it?
I have tried hard – and failed – to remember the last time someone was this delusional. She and cheated and is upset that people are calling her a cheater? I can’t wait for her to go to trial and then be convicted and hauled off to prison. If she thinks life is hard now, what does she think life in the big house is going to be like (oh right, she doesn’t think she’s going to prison because she’s convinced she did nothing wrong).
She is super rich and white. I would not be the least bit surprised if a jury acquitted her.
Yup. She’s better off going before a jury and performing her white outrage. And she’ll get acquitted.
There was an article describing what she said on the recording made when she spoke to Singer, something to the effect of, “all I have to do is send the money to this charity?”, and Singer says yes, but to keep it confidential, and she says, “of course”.
Screw this piece of trash. Again, my daughter suffered enormous challenges. Her dad gave her a brain injury, and she had seizures and she really needed the 504 plan that positioned Loughlin’s hired guns to change her kids’ test scores. It was about more than the bribes. I hope that she and her husband are imprisoned for at least 10 years each. May her religious beliefs comfort her in jail, but I won’t hold my breathe. She will be sympathetic to somebody on the jury.
Trump. Got one for you.
First one that came to my mind, too!
narcissist?
How can they be this divorced from reality? How are their lawyers going along with this?
The Hollywood weirdness. Lori and Mossimo have the power that people like Brandi Glanville are willing to make fools of themselves to get. In Hollywood, everyone wants to be like the Giannullis. It’s why rappers worshipped Donald Trump before what he was was revealed in his campaign rhetoric, being bullet proof to criticism and having everything you want come to you.
There is a story Chris Rock tells about being a young comedian and watching all of these women approach Trump, hitting on him. The Giannullis are the kind of couple everybody in LA wants to be friends with so that they can keep working or to be invited to the right parties to make connections. The key is being likeable to the general public once you meet the people who can “sell” you properly. What they actually are doesn’t matter because of the money they can pull in.
I believe our justice system is desperately broken – and she probably won’t get prison time.
But she should, and I hope she does. She is a cheater. She is a criminal.
Vote for people who promise to act on things like climate change and criminal justice reform. Until orange wanna be hitter takes away our right to vote, we can still effect change in our country.
Ariel, as long as juries are sympathetic to people like the Gianullis, it won’t matter. But I hope that the jury sees thorough the PR crap. Lori and Mossimo know they cheated. They just need to keep repeating the angle that “anyone would do it for their kids”, until we in our plebeian stupidity believe it, because “That’s Entertainment!”, lol.
They need to go to jail for all of the kids and parents across the country and the world who worked at doing the right thing to seek education.
Ariel, we don’t have a justice system. We have a legal system, for better or for worse
If she evades prison time she should do a fall back career with classes called Entitlement 101.
“Entitlement for Dummies”
Didn’t she actively stage a crew photoshoot with her kids, fully aware that they were never competitive crew athletes?
All the money aside, that’s a huge deception. It’s not rocket science. If true, she’s so entitled. Her pathology is really on display.
In their world, remaking reality is their reality. My ex was a music promoter in the business. His motto was that if you believed him, it was on you for being stupid because that’s just how it is. I like when Kaiser pokes holes in Hollywood’s little PR narratives. She knows the codes and helps us see them. Loughlin is accustomed to her narratives being taken as gospel, pun intended. She Yeesuz..,
She (via Singer’s orders) had the kids pose on a rowing machine. Then Singer photoshopped them into an actual crew shot, and sent THAT in with the application. She AND the kids knew damned well what that photo was for.
These people are the West Coast WASP Kushners.
Nope. This is a very gauche Hollywood low class scandal. You couldn’t just make the million dollar donation? You had to hire some guy to bribe coaches for you? How very embarrassing. The old moneyed folks that have been doing this for generations would never. They know the “right” ways to cheat kids into schools.
Hollywood folks don’t know what gauche means. One of my professors in college made me laugh when he told us in a lecture, “new money lives in Beverly Hills and Malibu and drives a Mercedes. Old money lives in La Canada and drives a 10 year-old Toyota.”
thanks to reality TV, there is no longer a distinction between fame & infamy
Haha, yeah, that’s what strikes me funniest about the whole scandal. It’s so nouveau riche. Old money doesn’t need to brag about their kids going to USC. Old money is comfortably well aware of its superiority.
White Privilege is not cheating, it just IS says Aunt Becks.
When you’re so out of touch that you think your out of touch PR person is making super relatable arguments.
Really. I can’t believe a PR person worth his or her salt wouldn’t tell them that they are rubbing people the wrong way. Felicity Huffman was smart, she put her head down, took the plea and STFU.
She is certainly doing an outstanding job at alienating public opinion.
Yes, the people who can’t get out of jury duty are not people likely to be sympathetic.
Exactly
She’s making Felicity Huffman not look so bad. That’s about it.
I shouldn’t be so entertained at watching this couples absolute bewilderment as their curated, constructed lives crumbles around them, but I am . They’re furious at being forced to face their transgressions. They’re obviously in complete denial and having inhabited their privileged bubble for so long are outraged that the feds are popping it…
Man, they are laying it on THICK with People magazine.
Oh well, thoughts and prayers.
Thoughts and prayers…yesssss lolololol
“…also outraged [by] people who are saying that they are cheaters.”
In related news I am outraged by people who are saying my Celebitchy messageboard name is Mia4s. Outraged I tell you! 🙄
Who knew that a D-list actress could be this self-righteous and out of touch with reality? Apparently she and her spouse have spent their 50-some years on this earth living in a cushy bubble.
If she did not want a trial and a continued circus, then the plea deal was the answer.
Right, she’s not even that famous! I imagine the A-listers must be even more delusional about their life.
“Hallmark Bitch” 😂🤣😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I’ll say it again…as broken as the criminal justice system is, it won’t surprise me that she and their husband won’t spend a day in jail. I won’t be shocked if a jury bought their story hook, line and sinker. The sense of entitlement and disconnect is astounding. Rules apply to others, but not me. And there are so many others who think and act just like her.
I can see her getting a few months in a Camp Cupcake-like minimum security prison, then another few on house arrest in her $35 million Bel Air mansion. I hope they put her and Mossimo away long enough for the fillers, botox and fake tans to wear off.
No jury is going to let them walk. They committed tax fraud — they bribed someone and then deducted said bribe from their taxes!
“Cheating”? No.
Fraud.
There’s a symphony sized group of tiny violins playing for her problems.
But in the one percent world, rules DO apply to others. Gaming the system, rigging the laws in their favor, the courtesy and low crime time for white collar crime, in fact the system was made FOR and BY them (in a larger sense). I mean, Grifter Individual Number One is in the White House. Duh. She is not wrong for thinking the way she does because most often, the world does work the way she thinks it does. Bubble chick lives in the one percent bubble world. I get her outrage. I see where she’s coming from.
They truly live in the Twilight Zone. Separate reality.
This is the bubble Lori lives in and just how selfish she is. I work for a criminal attorney and IMO if she took a plea deal and pleaded guilty, she probably would be able to protect her daughters from an investigation and criminal prosecution, now she opens up a can of worms and maybe brings her daughters into it. They might have to even testify at her trial.
Thing is, that to these kinds of people, the words “under oath” mean less than NOTHING! We’re seeing it at Congressional hearings. Does ANYONE believe KavaNOPE told the TRUTH, “UNDER OATH”?? ANY of the republiTHUGS? Oh hell no!
THEIR “truth” is only what furthers THEM. PERIOD.
I’m not calling them cheaters. I’m calling them a-holes.
Yup ~ cheating a~holes!
She is hysterical! So funny! I guess I will just have to ban her from my Hallmark watching. What a cheating, lier trumper.
But but it was a donation to the school 😒…
The white privilege and delusion is strong in this one. Are we sure she’s not related to Lindsay Lohan??
Their kids should be outraged but not because their parents got caught being stupid. They should be outraged because even with all their money their parents didn’t send them to the best schools and insist that they become educated employable adults.
Instead they let their kids become undereducated celebrities’ kids who aren’t capable of getting into college on their own (much less sustain a career) and are destined to spend their lives living off their parents’ money. These parents are no better than Will and Jada Smith when it comes to making sure their kids are properly educated.
Why do we look up to Hollywood “celebrities” again?
Is she *that* stupid?
Didn’t I read yesterday that Felicity Huffman is likely to be sentenced to jail time? And she pled out! Lori should pay attention, her future life as Hallmark Bitch is fast approaching.
Yet more Republicans who believe in personal responsibility EXCEPT when it is about themselves.
By the way, she was previously interviewed by the Christian Broadcast Network while promoting a Hallmark Christmas movie and was asked about her faith. “I believe in God,” was her answer. Funny how she’s now a devout Christian.
“Yet more Republicans who believe in personal responsibility EXCEPT when it is about themselves.” Of course. Many are so willing to lecture about ‘personal responsibility’ when it comes to issues like violence against women, (which usually just means, “It’s a woman’s responsibility to keep men from being violent with her by making choices we find respectable”) racism, poverty, and homophobia. But when someone talks to them about taking responsibility for the impact their negative choices have on other people, all of that flies out the window. There was a discussion somewhere else a while ago about how some thirsty conservative Canadian blogger’s racism and misogyny-filled blog was having on her family member’s lives, and her Trump-loving stans rushed in to assure her that she was in no way responsible for how minorities and other women have treated her or her family.
Personal responsibility is only ever asked of the poor.
Whoa, you just said a mouthful ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ @AryasMum ^^^^ 100%
kept it short, not sweet and very succinct.
Apologies to Hank Williams:
Your CHEATING ways will make you weep
You’ll cry and cry and try to sleep
But sleep won’t come the whole night through
Your CHEATING ways will tell on you.
When tears come down like falling rain
You’ll toss around and feel the pain
You CHEATED and BRIBED, To get her in.
Now you’ll pay the price. You didn’t win.
No wonder they are Trump supporters. Holy shit. They are literally insane narcissists. It is insane just reading about them. How can they be serious?!
A family matter? LOL, federal prosecutors disagree.
If you don’t want to be called a cheater…don’t cheat.
And she didn’t seem so broken up about all this when she was smiling and signing autographs at the courthouse.
I hope they nickname her cheating Aunt Becky.
Omg, the delusion is real with this one. Like yeah, I did it but HOW DARE you make fun of me? Or put me down? Good old Aunt Becky sounds like someone who hasn’t felt with any consequences in a suuuuuper long time.
Man, it’s so revealing when people of this kind of economic caliber face consequences for their actions. They’re really just so outraged to find a place where the rules actually apply to them.
I just came here to say: CHEATER, CHEATER PUMPKIN EATER!!
The most ironic part, to me, is that all this cheating was for herself and Mossimo so they could say “Our daughters go to USC.” I don’t know about the older girl, but Olivia Jade has made it quite clear that she had no interest in school except for the parties.
A private family matter? Bitch STOLE someone’s spots in college. Its a legal and public matter.
Boo effing Hoo. My kids got into college the old fashioned way. They earned it. Screw this entitled criminal family.
Wow, the absolute gall of this woman to act like SHE’S the one being wronged. Just… wow.
This bish and her deplorable husband. When this story first came out, I was mildly annoyed but honestly didn’t have strong feelings about it. But her and this performative privilege and playing the victim is on my last nerves and I went from, “Whatever,” to “Throw the book at them, please.” Her PR skills suck. She should find out who Felicity Huffman uses for PR.
They aren’t “ being destroyed”, they have destroyed themselves.
It’s a pretty common theme in Greek mythology.
She is being dishonest.
Lainey posted a video of LL from Pop Gossip Died, saying s Paris Hilton was being made an example of, ie, her DUI. 2009.
“This is putting unspeakable stress on her and her family”. She should try the other route where your child genuinely works hard for their marks, applies to schools, and waits to see if they get in. That’s stress. Doing it any other way is unfair, and shows she has no faith in her kids. AND IT’S ILLEGAL!!! No sympathy for the stress she’s under – sorry, not sorry.
My newest motto: don’t be sorry for being right!!!
And now one of the daughter is under investigation….pray on that Aunt Becky
I’m not sure what religion LL practices but mine specifically states as one of the commandments-Thou Shalt Not Steal. I’m sure she and her husband are to self righteous to understand that their actions robbed a more qualified student a place at that university.
hey, that’s what my religion teaches also! I don’t understand how their world view got so twisted if they are studying the Bible. Mind you, I also don’t understand extremeism, or the Crusades. I do understand wanting to evangelicasize (whatever) but this isn’t that!!!
So… What are her definitions of cheating, lying, and swindling?
I am okay with them “being destroyed.”
She just makes it worse and worse, all these stories are not helping one bit. Hallmark, Full House etc must be so relieved they don’t have to work with this ego maniac anymore.
She’s not doing this on her own. There’s a whole group including some very intelligent ppl who have decided to go for a Not Guilty plea. Now its the feds turn to pony up.
Congratulations, Laughlin.
You have attained a level of cluelessness only the truly rich can afford.
Just when I think they can’t be more annoying……. I can’t believe these people. What a couple of clueless creeps!!