LORI LOUGHLIN and FELICITY HUFFMAN just got busted as part of a massive, nationwide college admissions scandal . . . the biggest one our justice department has EVER investigated. They’re calling it “Operation Varsity Blues”. The official charges against both of them are “conspiracy to commit mail fraud” and “honest services mail fraud”. Here’s what was happening: A man named William Singer set up a fake charity that rich people would pay into. In exchange, he would fraudulently get their kids into some of the top schools in the country. Singer would also help students cheat on college entrance exams . . . or he’d even fake ATHLETIC CREDIENTIALS for them. Including staging photo shoots of the student “playing” a sport. People were paying from thousands to MILLIONS of dollars to get their kids into schools like Georgetown, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Wake Forest, Yale — Singer has been running this scam since 2011. Huffman reportedly paid $15,000 to help her eldest daughter. What happened was that after she took the SAT, a proctor secretly CORRECTED her wrong answers. The feds have an email Felicity wrote to Singer in 2017 that says, “Looks like [my daughter’s high school] wants to provide own proctor.” Felicity and her husband WILLIAM H. MACY talked to Singer about doing it again for their younger daughter, but decided not to. Macy was NOT charged. They do have evidence that he participated in talks for the younger daughter . . . but that transaction never went through. As for Lori Loughlin, she and her husband allegedly paid $500,000 to have their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC crew team – even though neither of them participated in the sport. The Feds say they just sent the school pictures of the girls on ROWING MACHINES. Charges have been filed against dozens of people, including exam administrators, school athletic coaches, and parents. It’s not clear if they’ll go after any of the KIDS. And the colleges themselves seem to be off the hook. Felicity was reportedly arrested by FBI agents with their GUNS DRAWN early yesterday morning. Her bond was set at $250,000, and she was ordered to surrender her passport. Lori would have received the same treatment, but she was out of the country. She’s expected to surrender today.
The Cleveland Browns just got receiver ODELL BECKHAM JR. from the Giants. He and quarterback BAKER MAYFIELD could be a deadly combination.
Accounting for inflation, “Gone with the Wind” is actually the highest-grossing movie of all time, with an adjusted gross of $1.82 billion. It’s followed by the original “Star Wars” and “The Sound of Music”.
MAREN MORRIS will still be on tour when her one-year wedding anniversary comes up on March 24th. She’s flying her husband Ryan Hurd out to join her in San Francisco. “[It’s] not a bad city to be celebrating your first anniversary. I imagine the day will consist of a lot of trollies and great food.”
MITCHELL TENPENNY’s “Alcohol You Later” video starts out with him pouring a shot of something strong, because it seems right. Then he plays guitar and sings until a beautiful girl shows up wearing lingerie. That seems right too. It’s the second single from his debut album, “Telling All My Secrets”.
COLTON UNDERWOOD’s virginity was the biggest subplot of “The Bachelor” this season. It’s not clear, but it seems likely that Colton did indeed BECOME A MAN. Colton dumped the final two women, Hannah G. and Tayshia, to go after Cassie – who had previously dumped HIM. Well, after some convincing, he got Cassie to give him a chance. And in no time, they were spending the night in the FANTASY SUITE. During his confessional the next morning he refused to admit anything. But he did say, “I feel like a new man. We had an amazing night. We did what was best for our relationship and we grew as a couple.” He and Cassie also admitted they didn’t get much sleep. CARRIE UNDERWOOD hit up Twitter to remind the world that she is NOT related to COLTON UNDERWOOD. And HANNAH B. is your next “Bachelorette”.
The Academy of Country Music has launched a diversity task force that will, “examine barriers and biases affecting women and underrepresented groups in country music.” This is a response to the bad press they’re getting for failing to have any female Entertainer of the Year nominees in the past two years . . . and for having NO female winners of that award since Taylor Swift back in 2011. The task force will offer recommendations about how to change things up in the academy as well as the “industry at large.” They’ll be announcing more details later this month. In other ACM news: The first round of performers have been announced for next month’s show. They are: Miranda Lambert, Brothers Osborne, Kane Brown, Little Big Town, Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett, Chris Stapleton and George Strait . . . plus a performance from the show’s host, Reba McEntire.
KACEY MUSGRAVES is one of the sharpest wits in country music. David Crosby . . . of Crosby, Stills & Nash said, “Have any of you heard a girl named Casey Musgraves . . . song called ‘Slow Burn’?” He spelled Kacey with a “C” instead of a “K”. Instead of correcting him or making a big deal out of it, she simply replied, “Doesn’t ring a bell.” Perfect.
Whose opinion does THOMAS RHETT always follow when he’s trying to decide whether or not to record a song? His wife, Lauren. “She’s the ultimate gauge. If she didn’t like a song, it means that 70% of the female population is not going to like it, which is a big percentage . . . so I’m always playing her songs.” Lauren goes by “feeling” when she hears a song, and that feeling is always right. She can tell within 15 seconds if the song is worth his time.
JOSE CANSECO’s ex-wife says she’s not sleeping with ALEX RODRIGUEZ.
THE JONAS BROTHERS got their first #1 hit, and NICK JONAS’ wife PRIYANKA CHOPRA got a $200,000 Mercedes.
JUDGE JUDY is getting a lifetime achievement award at the “Daytime Emmys”.
DEVIN DAWSON is a California native and he will donate the proceeds from his California Smoke Tour to wildfire victims in his home state.
William H. Macyis 69
