Most of us love a good old fashioned Hollywood scandal. Especially if it involves wealth, power, privilege and arrogance. All of those bullet point requirements and more were met by the college admissions fraud story that broke last month.
The two best known players in the scandal have been actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. Much to their consternation, I am sure, they have been the cover girls for a legal debacle that seems resistant to dropping out of the headlines. Allegations of resorting to bribery to get your children into college is proof that yes, there actually is such a thing as bad publicity. And last year, Lori revealed that she and her family could have been the subject of even more public attention-with their own reality show.
According to an article in US Weekly, Lori revealed last year to E! News that she and her family had fielded previous offers for their own reality show. She said at the time, “We’ve been asked to do a reality show a couple times. We’re not that exciting.” From what we have learned in the last month, Lori might have been a bit modest about her family. Boring on the surface, but really, really interesting once you get to know them!
And what a difference a year makes. No one knew at the time that Hallmark and Fuller House star Lori and her designer husband Mossimo Giannulli had allegedly been involved in a bribery scheme to get their daughters Olivia and Bella into college at USC. As crew recruits, despite neither girl actually participating in the sport! And apparently, the going rate for college admittance for two was $500,000. Cash, check or Black American Express Card?
What kind of show would the Loughlin-Giannulli’s have done if they had pursued the reality show opportunities? So many ideas! I am sure the show would have been a spotlight on a life of wretched excess-as in having more money than you know what to do with. And episodes of Lori and her husband Mossimo helicopter parenting so their children had the best of everything and were spared the pedestrian life lessons the less privileged experience.
Just think of the potential show titles. “We’re Rich-and You’re Not.” How about “Breaking All the Rules?” Maybe “Full House of Cash?” Or “The Loughlin-Giannulli Crew?”Well, I guess we will never know as Lori’s career is currently, as they say in Hollywood, “on hiatus.”
While the admissions scandal is rife with opportunities for jokes, at the core it is kind of tragic. Parents so intent on giving their children everything that they will stop at nothing to get it is sad. And denying their offspring the opportunity to succeed and fail on their own merit robs them of valuable life lessons that cannot be purchased. Even for $500,000.
What will happen to Lori and her husband in all of this remains to be seen. The couple was hit with additional conspiracy to commit money laundering charges this week, in addition to their initial fraud charges after failing to make a plea deal in their case. And they are facing possible decades in prison. The only thing for certain is that Hallmark does not make a greeting card to cover the situation that the Loughlin-Giannullis are facing.
TELL US-WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL? DO YOU THINK LORI LOUGHLIN AND HER HUSBAND SHOULD SERVE TIME IF CONVICTED?
