Lori Loughlin returns to theaters after college admissions scandal – The Hollywood Reporter

Lori Loughlin is set to return to television, reprising her role as Abigail Stanton, a widow and cafe owner-turned-mayor, in the final season of the GAC Family series. When hope calls.

Loughlin is set to guest star in the second season, which will debut on the GAC Family network on December 18. The current president and CEO of the network is Bill Abbott, the former CEO of Hallmark Channel’s parent company, Crown Media Family Networks. After 11 years in the post, Abbott stepped down in January 2020, a month after the network received backlash over its decision to remove online wedding retailer Zola’s ad featuring the marriage of a lesbian couple.

GAC Family was rebranded on September 27 as Great American Country, expanding its original focus as a country music-focused channel to lifestyle programming, which now includes family-friendly and vacation-themed movies and series. celebrating American culture, lifestyle and heritage.

As described in the Season 2 premiere episode, Loughlin will return as Abigail after arriving in a stagecoach with his son, Cody, and a troubled boy headed to the local orphanage. During the episode titled “When Hope Calls: A Country Christmas, Part 1”, Abigail will have “a deep conversation with a dear friend from the past.”

When hope calls follows orphaned sisters, Lillian and Grace, who were originally introduced in When the heart calls: the greatest blessing of Christmas, who reunited in 1916 as adults and opened an orphanage in the small town of Brookfield, in western Canada. The show’s first season debuted on streamer Hallmark Movies Now before airing on Hallmark Channel.

Loughlin’s onscreen role last was in When the heart calls youis the sixth season. The actress was fired due to her involvement in the college admissions scandal, as her character was sent to care for a sick family member.

The old one Full house The star was released in December 2020 from the low-level federal women’s correctional facility in Dublin, Calif., After serving nearly two months for her role in the Varsity Blues University admissions scandal. In May 2020, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli pleaded guilty to the original charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, before being later charged with Conspiracy to Launder Money and Conspiracy to Bribe Federal Programs.

In August 2020, the judge in the Loughlin case had accepted his plea deal, with the actress to serve two months in prison, pay a fine of $ 150,000 and perform 100 hours of community service.

The duo was accused in 2019 of paying Rick Singer, who ran the famous nationwide admissions program, $ 500,000 in bribes to help their daughters, Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Giannulli, enter the University of Southern California.