Loughlin out at Hallmark over college scandal

LOS A NGELES • — The Hallmark Channel cut ties Thursday with favoured star Lori Loughlin, a day after her arrest in a college admissions scam put the family-friendly network and extended Hallmark brand in uncomfortable proximity to a national scandal.

“We are saddened by the recent allegations surrounding the college admissions process,” Hallmark Cards Inc., parent company of the Crown Media Family Networks group that includes the Hallmark Channel, said in a statement.

“We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin” and have stopped development of all productions with the actress for Crown Media channels, the statement said.

A federal investigation of the scam involving more than 30 prominent parents, including Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives fame, was revealed Tuesday. Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 to have their daughters labelled as rower team recruits to gain college admission.

On Thursday, cosmetics company Sephora dropped Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, a 19-year-old social media star who frequently pushes products to her 1.4 million Instagram followers.

Loughlin’s career and the Hallmark Channel were deeply intertwined. She’s been among its so-called “Christmas queens” who topline a slate of popular holiday movies, and also starred in the ongoing Garage Sale Mysterie movies and the series When Calls the Heart.

“It’s a feel-good, family values-type channel, and obviously scandal is the opposite of that,” said Atlanta-based market strategist Laura Ries.

There was more at stake than image. When Calls the Heart tapes in Vancouver, and a judge ordered Loughlin’s passport to be surren- dered in December after grudgingly allowing her to cross the border for work until then.

Loughlin’s ouster will have a wide-reaching impact on the Vancouver film community, with many others suddenly out of work after the decision to halt the actress’s projects.

Loughlin has not yet entered a plea. Her publicist declined comment Thursday on Hallmark’s decision to drop her.

The actress wasn’t exclusive to Hallmark. She’s reprised her role as Aunt Becky for Netflix’s Fuller House reboot of the popular series that originated in 1987 on ABC. But the sitcom represents a fraction of the streamer’s flood of programs, while Loughlin has occupied an increasing amount of Hallmark real estate since she starred in Meet My Mom in 2010.

Meanwhile, in the first lawsuit to come out of the scandal, several students filed lawsuits against Yale, Georgetown, Stanford and other schools involved in the case, saying they and others were denied a fair shot at admission.

The plaintiffs brought the class-action complaint Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of themselves and other applicants and asked for unspecified damages.

They argued that applicants who played by the rules were victimized when rich and famous parents paid bribes that enabled unqualified students to get into highly selective universities.

Authorities have said that the colleges did not know about the scam.

Lori Loughlin