Not all rich people are corrupt and greedy. However, there are those who will do anything to get ahead and believe they will not face the consequences because of their…ahem… influences. That is exactly what the wealthy individuals thought that go involved in the College Admissions Scandal. To be honest, they deserved everything they got and continue to get. That’s what I wanted to talk about in this edition of BaBS. For those of you who have been following the blog for a while, you’ll know that I followed the entire situation from the angle of Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman mostly because they were the only names of the fifty parents arrested that I knew.
Now, there is a difference – massive, in fact – between these two famous, rich people. While both are actresses and well known for their characters, but one is more successful than the other. Now, you’re probably wondering why that is a problem. Well, we have the thirst of wanting to be perceived as something they’re not.
Let’s look at the case of Lori Loughlin first as she is the one I wrote about the most during the College Admissions Scandal.
Lori Loughlin – Bragging Rights Or Trying To Live Life Through Her Daughters?
Of all the rich people on the list of parents arrested during Operation: Varsity Blues, Full House star Lori Loughlin was amongst them. It honestly surprised me that someone with very little star power would get involved in something as serious as a scam this large. I knew who she was, but I had never seen anything she’d been in.
Until this scandal broke, I hadn’t really seen Lori in anything. I didn’t even know she had children let alone that she was married. Long story short, the more information came out about her involvement in the scheme the more I came to dislike her.
I also came to develop a hatred for her youngest daughter, YouTube star Olivia Jade. As for the oldest, Isabella, I didn’t – and still don’t – have an opinion of her as she kept a relatively low profile on social media despite also being an influencer like her sister.
From all the videos I watched, I got the impression that Lori forced her daughters to attend college. This – in my mind – was the reason she got involved with William “Rick” Singer to begin with. She knew that Olivia and Bella didn’t have the grades to into the University of Southern California. This was the only school she would allow her girls to go to. The reason? I came to the conclusion she wanted to gloat to her more rich friends that her kids went there.
Now, outside of her appearances on Full House and its spin-off Fuller House and a load of Hallmark channel projects, Lori has never been a huge star. She’s a bit part actress who thinks she’s a bigger deal than what she is. This has clearly shifted over to her parenting because Olivia comes across as a spoilt brat.
Felicity Huffman: No Ego, Just Poor Judgement
Felicity Huffman is by far a bigger star than Lori Loughlin. She actually has the acting awards to show for it in the form of a nomination for an Academy award, an Emmy, and a couple of Golden Globe noms.
Unlike Loughlin, Huffman does not run around flaunting her wealth. She also does not try to force her daughters into college. Nor does she live through them. The only mistake she made was paying a bribe to have the SAT score on her eldest daughter’s exam changed so she could go to a swanky college.
Felicity, unlike Lori admitted her wrongdoing almost straight away and she didn’t bother to fight the allegations against her. This makes her one of those good-hearted rich people. She was just misguided and thought she was helping her daughter by giving her a ‘nudge’.
She also showed remorse whereas Lori didn’t. Yes, she said that she was only helping her daughter, but the amount of money she paid to have the score altered was nowhere near as big in sum as the one Loughlin pulled out of her luxury handbag.
Also, Felicity’s husband who is William H. Macy wasn’t involved in the scam the way Mossimo Giannulli, Lori’s hubby was.
Where Lori Went Wrong
Lori is one of those rich people who thinks she’s a gift to the world. She believes that she has it all and is teaching her daughters the same thing. There’s a load of videos on Olivia’s YouTube channel of when she was still in high school where she just complains about hating it. While this is not her mother’s fault, she has inserted a sense of entitlement into her children.
I can’t say the same for Bella, but I’ve seen enough of Olivia’s snobbish behaviour to last me a life time. She might believe she is relatable, but she is not and it is the way her parents raised her; to believe they can get away with anything because they have money.
This is not the lesson that Felicity set for her own daughters. She also lives a more private life than Lori does. Her daughters, Sophia and Georgia are not social media stars – from what I can tell though they do use at least Instagram.
As an actress, Lori should’ve known what it was like to work from the bottom and worked her way up. She’s not a goddess who can instantly make things happen. Yes, she is also a producer, but she has created mass damage, not just to her career but Olivia’s too.
Since the scandal broke in March 2019, Olivia has only posted two videos. I watched one of them where she doesn’t say anything about the case. She just prattles on for two minutes. With the second video I only got about 30 seconds in and had to switch it off. I wasn’t going to waste like fifteen minutes of her droning on about nothing.
Going back to Lori, it appears she forced to the idea of college down her daughters’ throats.
Felicity Was Willing To Admit Her Guilt
As I stated before, Felicity was willing to admit that what she did was wrong. All she wanted to help her daughter who reportedly had a learning disability. While I understand why she did it, she should have realised that her children can succeed on their own merits.
It has also been said that the daughter whose test score was changed turned to her mother and asked, “Don’t you believe in me?” Now, that would question would’ve broken Felicity’s heart. She had lost her child’s faith in her. When this happened, she knew she had to plead guilty.
I don’t condone what Felicity did in having her daughter’s SAT score altered, but she did something Lori couldn’t do in the beginning; apologise and corrected her wrong the best way she knew how. She did not try to fight the charges against her because she understood they were justified. She spent 11 day behind bars and probably learnt never to allow her conscience get in the way of her doing the right thing.
Also, she didn’t force college on her daughters the way Lori did with hers. If Sophia and Georgia wanted to go, that was their decision, not their parents’. While Felicity shows remorse, Loughlin did not and still doesn’t. She only agreed to to plead guilty because it would take the pressure off her and Mossimo and get them minimal prison sentences.
Did Felicity And Lori Deserve The Time They Got In Prison?
Now, why do rich people do stupid things and think they’ll get away with it? Ahh… because they can? Anyway, onto our final point. Did Lori and Felicity deserve their prison sentences? There’s two ways I could answer this. The first is ‘yes’, absolutely. The longer one is the following; they did deserve it but their sentences should’ve been longer.
Now, I’m no legal expert by any means, but the sentences were too lenient. Felicity should have at least gotten six months to a year, maybe two. Lori, on the other hand should have gotten a lot longer. It was speculated that she and her husband were facing a possibility of 40 years. Instead, they got 2 and 5 months, respectively.
Felicity only got two weeks. However, I can understand why Huffman’s sentence was much less. She cooperated with the authorities and she plead guilty. Meanwhile, Lori and Mossimo fought the charges and plead not guilty despite the overwhelming evidence against them.
If anything, Lori and Mossimo should’ve gone to prison at the same time for the exact same amount of time. The girls can fend for themselves since they are adults now who are independent.
