Felicity Huffman's comeback: How Desperate Housewives' glamorous relaunch may save fan-favourite's floundering career after college admissions scandal saw her jailed

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

The actress that brought Desperate Housewives' legendary Lynette Scavo to life is now back on our screens - after six years out of the spotlight following a scandal that saw her jailed for 11 days.
All came crashing down for Felicity Huffman in 2019 when the New York-born star, renowned for being a series fan-favourite, was exposed being involved in the Varsity Blues college admissions controversy when she fudged her daughter, Sophia's SAT score to snag her a spot at a prestigious school.
Pleading guilty to the crimes, the actress, 62, went on to serve just under a fortnight in prison and do 250 hours of community service, with the ordeal blowing a hole in an otherwise starry career.
With a reputation marred by controversy, the star was forced to take an involuntary break from acting - and while she's since braved comebacks, it hasn't been easy.
Now however, amid the beloved series' relaunch, Felicity looks to have been offered a second chance, having landed her first water-tight acting job since the debacle - which also embroiled A-listers like Lori Laughlin - threatened to extinguish her reputation for good.
In May, she appeared in a leading role in The 13th Wife: Escaping Polygamy playing the 'extraordinary true story' of Rena Chynoweth, the former of 'a manipulative polygamist group leader'.
It marked her second major production in a comeback that has taken her six years to land, with the actress having previously described how her 'old life died' after the scandal came to light.
Last year, she opened up in a rare interview since the incident, confessing that she felt as if her 'old life has died'.
Felicity, who was at the time preparing to star in Hir in London's West End as the radical and liberated mother of a transgender son, told The Guardian that she was 'still processing' what happened, but was 'grateful' for the second chance.
The play marked her return to work after bribing college officials $15,000. Reflecting how how she felt performing in front of an audience who knew about her past, she said: 'I walk into the room with it. I did it. It's black and white.'
When asked how she was following the scandal, she answered that she founded it 'a loaded question'.
Felicity said she is 'still processing' how she is doing after the ordeal, but added that she feels 'grateful to be here' and is happy as long as her family are doing well.
The publication reported that Felicity has 'barely worked' since she was jailed and reflecting on the change to her career, she said: 'I did a pilot for ABC recently that didn't get picked up. It's been hard.'
'Sort of like your old life died and you died with it. I'm lucky enough to have a family and love and means, so I had a place to land,' she said.
In May, she appeared in a leading role in The 13th Wife: Escaping Polygamy playing the 'extraordinary true story' of Rena Chynoweth, the former of 'a manipulative polygamist group leader'
In the years following the reputation shattering ordeal, she has worked to repair her wrongdoings, but initially struggled to make ends meet beyond a handful of roles in flopped productions.
Last year, she took on a role in the spin-off series, Criminal Minds: Evolution playing Dr. Jill Gideon, the ex-wife of Jason Gideon, who was played by Mandy Patinkin on the original show.
After scoring the role in its second series, her husband, fellow actor, William H. Macy, praised his wife for doing a 'great job' and said he was 'really glad she's working'.
Felicity has also made an appearance in a small handful of productions since, including being cast in a pilot for a spinoff of ABC's 'The Good Doctor' opposite Kennedy McMann - though it didn't make it beyond the first episode.
In 2020, she starred in an untitled pilot for ABC, performing as the owner of a minor league baseball team, but again, the show failed to progress.
She starred as Tammy MacDonald in the 2019 dark comedy, Tammy's Always Dying, about an alcoholic who is diagnosed with terminal cancer .
The film, which premiered at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival slumped in the reviews, scoring just a 5.7 out of 10 on IMDb.
It's a far cry from some of her former wins in the industry, with the Desperate Housewives actress having once been nominated for an Oscar while playing a trans woman in the drama, Transmerica.
She played the villainous prosecutor Linda Fairstein in When They See Us, a miniseries about the Central Park Five, a group of young black New York boys who were wrongfully imprisoned for the rape of a jogger in New York (pictured)
Prior to college scandal and after Desperate Housewives came to a close in 2012, she had taken on a number of roles, including Cake in 2014 with Jennifer Aniston, Rudderless in 2014, and the series, American Crime, in 2015.
And amid news of the scandal in May 2019, Felicity was simultaneously receiving acclaim for her TV and film roles.
She played the villainous prosecutor Linda Fairstein in When They See Us, a miniseries about the Central Park Five, a group of young black New York boys who were wrongfully imprisoned for the rape of a jogger in New York.
Then in July 2019, she was seen in Otherhood, a comedy film directed by Cindy Chupack, alongside Angela Bassett.
But it would prove her last before a long break.
Seven years after she wrapped on Desperate Housewives, Felicity was sentenced to 14 days in jail who her involvement in the college admissions scandal.
The actress paid Rick Singer $15,000 to fudge her daughter Sophia's SAT scores in order to land her a place at college and was among a group of wealthy, famous parents swept up in the ordeal.
Felicity paid $30,000 in fines and spent 11 days in jail after being charged with fraud in 2019.
In her first public remarks outside of the courtroom, she said she thought it was 'a joke' when FBI agents turned up at her mansion to arrest her.
'They came into my home, they woke my daughters up at gunpoint - again, nothing new to the black and brown community - then they put my hands behind my back and handcuffed me.
'I asked if I could get dressed. I thought it was a hoax. I literally turned to one of the FBI people in a flak jacket and a gun and I go 'is this a joke?'
Felicity said she regretted the scheme but felt she had no choice at the time because Sophia, who she previously said has a learning disability, would not have been accepted otherwise.
'It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future. And so it was sort of like my daughter's future, which meant I had to break the law,' she said.
'I think I feel the people I owe a debt and an apology to is the academic community and to the students and the families that sacrifice and work really hard to get to where they are going legitimately.'
'I want to use my experience and what I've gone through and the pain to bring something good,' she said.
Felicity and Macy hired Singer to help Sophia improve her scores in order to get into college.
She claims the scheme was not obvious at first, but became plain when Singer told them Sophia would not be accepted into any schools without greasing the wheels.
'After a year, he started to say your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to,' the actress expressed in an interview with Eyewitness.
'And I believed him. And so when he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seems like - and I know this seems crazy at the time - but that was my only option to give my daughter a future.
'And I know hindsight is 20/20 but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn't do it. So - I did it.'
Sophia was unaware that her parents had paid for someone to alter her test answers after she completed the SATs.
The scheme involved Singer paying off a handful of discreet test supervisors who would inflate students' scores once they had completed the exam.
On the day of the SAT test, she said Sophia was nervous and asking if they could go for ice cream afterwards.
'She was going, "Can we get ice cream afterwards?"' Felicity recalled. 'I'm scared about the test. What can we do that's fun? And I kept thinking, turn around, just turn around.