Hallmark cuts Lori Loughlin from all projects amid college admissions scandal

Hallmark has severed ties with actress Lori Loughlin after she was arrested for her alleged participation in an elaborate scheme aimed at getting students into elite colleges.

“We are saddened by the recent news surrounding the college admissions allegations,” the company said in a statement to The Times on Thursday. “We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin and have stopped development of all productions that air on the Crown Media Family Network channels involving Lori Loughlin including ‘Garage Sale Mysteries,’ an independent third party production.”

Loughlin, of “Full House” fame, has been a longtime regular on the media company’s programming. She has starred in a number of the Hallmark Channel’s original romantic holiday movies, including 2018’s “Homegrown Christmas,” 2016’s “Every Christmas Has a Story” and 2015’s “Northpole: Open for Christmas,” as well as the network’s 2010 romantic drama “A Soldier’s Love Story.”

She’s part of the original cast of the Hallmark Channel series “When Calls the Heart,” which debuted in 2014 and is now airing its sixth season. Loosely based on Janette Oke’s series of Christian novels, the family-friendly drama centers on small-town schoolteacher Elizabeth Thatcher; Loughlin plays her wise friend, Abigail Staunton.

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Loughlin also leads the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel’s TV movie series “Garage Sale Mystery,” which is in production. Since 2014, she has played Jennifer Shannon, an antique-store owner who solves crimes.

When she was arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles, she had to surrender her passport but was allotted travel to Canada for work scheduled through July. The next four installments of “Garage Sale Mystery” would have been among those gigs.

Loughlin, who faces charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud, turned herself in and was released on $1-million bail on Wednesday.

According to court records, she participated in a scheme with William Rick Singer, the owner of a for-profit Newport Beach college admissions company. Singer, who pleaded guilty on multiple charges related to the scheme, was paid by wealthy parents to help their children cheat on college-entrance exams and falsify students’ athletic records to score admission into elite schools, including UCLA, USC, Stanford, Yale and Georgetown, according to court records.

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Court records show that Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, the creator of clothing brand Mossimo, “agreed to pay bribes totaling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team” even though they did not participate in the sport.

Loughlin is scheduled to reprise her role as Rebecca Katsopolis in the fifth and final season of “Fuller House” (Netflix’s successful reboot of the ABC sitcom “Full House”), which the streaming giant will release this fall. Netflix has declined comment on the matter.