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Can Lori Loughlin make a career comeback after serving prison sentence? Experts weigh in
Published August 21, 2020
Lori Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison on Friday after pleading guilty for her role in the college admissions scandal.
The "Full House" actress, 56, also agreed to pay a $150,000 fine along with two years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service, per her plea agreement.
Meanwhile, her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, will serve five months in prison, pay a $250,000 fine with two years of supervised release and complete 250 hours of community service.
LORI LOUGHLIN, MOSSIMO GIANNULLI SENTENCED IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL CASE
"I made an awful decision. I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process and in doing so I ignored my intuition and allowed myself to be swayed from my moral compass,” Loughlin said. “I have great faith in God, and I believe in redemption and I will do everything in my power to redeem myself and use this experience as a catalyst to do good.”
Andrew Gilman, president & CEO of CommCore Consulting Group, weighed in on Loughlin's sentencing and if her acting career is salvageable after she serves.
"If she accepts the punishment, pays the fine, and puts in the hours of community service, she will have paid the price to the court of law," he told Fox News. "In the court of public opinion, restoring her reputation and getting hired again will depend on time, her sincerity and [if] producers and audiences [are] willing to forgive and forget."
LORI LOUGHLIN'S HUSBAND, MOSSIMO GIANNULLI, SENTENCED TO 5 MONTHS IN PRISON
He questioned if "values-based networks like Hallmark might be slower to accept her being cast." The network severed ties with the actress back in March 2019 after she was arrested.
She previously starred in a number of Hallmark's original romantic holiday movies such as 2018’s “Homegrown Christmas" and 2016’s “Every Christmas Has a Story."
Eden Gillott, president of Gillott Communications, told Fox News that "a reputation isn't like a computer on the fritz. You can't just flip a switch and restore a career as if nothing happened. She’s going to need a hard reset."
LORI LOUGHLIN'S COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL CASE: EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT IT
In order for Loughlin to return to Hollywood, it's "going to require laying low and being as un-newsworthy as possible while she redefines what's important to her and her family."
Howard Breuer, CEO of a Los Angeles-based PR firm Newsroom PR, called Loughlin's sentencing amid a pandemic "serendipitous" because very few TV and movies have returned to production. So, by the time any projects were to resume, Loughlin will be out of prison.
"Think about all that we are going through now and what the next year will be like. Will anyone care?" he wondered.
Irwin Feinberg, a founding partner at the FMBK law firm, disagreed to a point. He reasoned that Loughlin "played by a whole different set of rules. Rules that didn't apply to the 'little people.'"
"In essence, she used those rules to buy her daughters' admissions into the schools that she wanted for them. If she's going to seek redemption in the public's eye, she going to have to find a level of humility," he added. "[Loughlin] needs to establish that's she's contrite... and is determined not to repeat those mistakes."
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Both Loughlin and Giannulli were ordered to surrender on Nov. 19, 2020.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/lori-loughlin-career-comeback-prison