Wow: Hallmark Channel gives Loughlin the Spacey treatment

We learned late yesterday that the Hallmark channel had cut ties with Lori Loughlin after her indictment in a college-admissions corruption conspiracy. What we didn’t know is that Christopher Plummer had been hired to reshoot all of her scenes in every Hallmark movie Loughlin made.

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Okay, it’s not that bad, but Loughlin’s getting something close to the Kevin Spacey treatment:

“We are saddened by the recent news surrounding the college admissions allegations,” the parent company of the Hallmark Channel said in a statement. “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.”

The company also said all of Loughlin’s completed work will be removed.

“Removed”? Deciding not to work with Loughlin in the future makes sense, since it’s unclear just how much time she’ll have to work and juggle a trial and perhaps some time at Club Fed. It also makes some sense not to air Loughlin’s previous work for the short term, since the scandal would tend to overshadow the light and fluffy fare Hallmark usually has on tap.

Removing it altogether, though, offers an unpleasant aroma of Soviet-style historical revisionism. The indictments allege serious crimes on Loughlin’s part, but it’s not the same as the sexual-assault allegations involving Spacey, nor is it on the same scale as, oh, doing photo ops on a North Vietnamese artillery piece while American servicemen languished in brutal POW camps. Not that any actor would have been stupid enough to do that, of course, as Hollywood would never have let that person work again. Right?

By the way, it looks like Plummer has another opportunity coming up at Netflix’s Fuller House. “Gee Aunt Becky, you look tired today…”

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Now it seems inevitable that Netflix will not be inviting the actor know around the world as Aunt Becky back for the fifth and final season of Fuller House.

“She’s toast, it’s over,” said one well positioned source of Loughlin’s Tanner residence future.

While no official final decision has been made by the streamer or distributor Warner Horizon Television on still UTA-repped Loughlin’s Fuller House fate, I’m told the writing is pretty clearly on the wall. A final judgement could come as soon as the next day or so.

Deadline’s Dominic Patten also raised an eyebrow at Hallmark’s attempts to unperson Loughlin:

All of which means losing the recurring guest role can occur with a line or two of yet to be written dialogue about how Rebecca Donaldson-Katsopolis had to leave San Francisco suddenly. That’s certainly a far cry from the deep re-edits or other “creative solutions” that Hallmark producers are trying to come up on their series that Loughlin starred on.

Indeed. If you don’t want to do business with Loughlin again, that’s a legit business choice. Acting as though Loughlin never worked with you is something else altogether. When the producers of All the Money in the World made a last-minute change to have Plummer play Spacey’s part, it made business sense but raised questions about just how far this would go. Hallmark is a surprising leading edge on this question now.

Speaking about cutting business ties, Sephora has cut loose its leading YouTube “influencer” too, and Olivia Jade Giannulli’s other sponsors may be following suit:

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“After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately,” the company said in a statement to The Times on Thursday.

And it appears that other brands might be following suit: The web page for her Princess Polly collection is no longer available online. Clothing retailer Lulus said it hasn’t worked with her since August 2018 and has “no plans to do so in the future.” Hewlett-Packard, which had a one-time product campaign with Olivia Jade in 2017, has “removed the content from its properties.”

The Times reached out to all of Jade’s Instagram brand partners. Calvin Klein, Smashbox, and TooFaced declined to comment. Amazon Fashion, Windsor Store, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Smile Direct Club,  Tresemmé and Clinique did not respond to a request for comment.

That’s a hard lesson for Loughlin’s daughter to learn so early. Perhaps this will focus her on getting a real education in order to have something else to contribute to the world.

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