An old tweet from Felicity Huffman isn’t holding up very well after the Desperate Housewives star was arrested in part of “Operation Varsity Blues”, a federal operation that charged wealthy parents across the country in a college admissions scandal.
Huffman is one of dozens of wealthy parents, including Fuller House star Lori Loughlin, charged with allegedly paying bribes up to $6 million in order to get their children into Ivy League and upscale colleges like Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southern California.
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In a newly resurfaced tweet from Huffman, 56, she wrote in August 2016, “What are your best ‘hacks’ for the back-to-school season?”
As one might imagine, the tweet has become a sort of field day with present-day Twitter users, responding to it with enough gusto to ensure someone from Huffman’s publicity team will take the tweet down as soon as possible.
But for now, the tweet remains, as do the several amusing replies.
“I like having daddy pay someone to take my SAT for me and say I’m an elite athlete when I’m not to crack the ivy league. You?” one Twitter user wrote.
“Idk, most people usually donate a wing or a library, Felicity,” another said.
“Don’t forget to bring millions of dollars for bribes. And a spiral notebook,” someone else cracked.
“Well, this certainly has a different ring to it now,” another said.
Others simply replied with memes, like a cringing Chrissy Teigen of even an old GIF of Huffman’s character on Desperate Housewives holding her head.
According to the charging papers, Huffman, who is married to Shameless star William H. Macy, “made a purported charitable contribution of $15,000 … to participate in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of her eldest daughter.”
“Huffman later made arrangements to pursue the scheme a second time, for her younger daughter, before deciding not to do so,” the documents allege.
Although Macy was not named as a defendant in the full indictment list Tuesday, one of his past statements is coming back to haunt him and Huffman. The veteran actor, 68, bragged on his eldest daughter, Sofia, to Parade in January and lamented the “stressful” nature of college application time.
“She’s going to go to college. I’m the outlier in this thing. We’re right now in the thick of college application time, which is so stressful,” he said. “I am voting that once she gets accepted, she maybe takes a year off. God doesn’t let you be 18 twice. I know from casting, if you need a 25-, 26-year-old actress, there are a lot of them out there and they’re really good. But if you need a 15-, 16-year-old actress, it’s tough. Sofia looks young. I think this is an opportunity for her. But it’s just my opinion, and we’ll see what she wants to do, what Felicity thinks and how the chips fall.”
At press time, Huffman was in federal custody, NBC News correspondent Andrew Blankenstein reported, adding that Loughlin is still at large.
“Actress Felicity Huffman is in Federal custody after being arrested at her home without incident,” Blankenstein tweeted. “There is an arrest warrant out for actress Lori Loughlin, who was NOT in Los Angeles this morning when Federal agents went to her home per officials familiar.”
Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team — despite the fact that they did not participate in crew — thereby facilitating their admission to USC,” according to indictment documents.
Prosecutors say parents like Loughlin and Huffman paid California man William Rick Singer’s Key Worldwide Foundation charity $25 million to go toward an SAT or ACT administrator or college athletic coach who would fake a profile for the prospective student. Parents would allegedly pay up to $75,000 for each test and wire money to “charitable accounts.”
Loughlin and Huffman were indicted on conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud.
