Lori Loughlin Hailed As ‘America’s Sweetheart’ By GAC Network CEO As She Lands New Movie After Serving Jail Time

Hollywood star Lori Loughlin appears to have out her infamous college admissions scandal behind her, as it’s just been announced that starring in her first romantic comedy, Fall Into Winter, for Great American Family. Further, CEO William Abott plans to make Loughlin the face of the network, describing her as “America’s sweetheart.”

Loughlin’s History

This comes after Loughlin, 58, served two months in prison at the end of 2020 on charges related to her allegedly paying $500,000 to have both her daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as members of the crew team, even though neither girl had ever rowed before. Her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, served five months on similar charges.

Though Loughlin had a successful acting career appearing in wholesome television shows and movies for the Hallmark Channel prior to her scandal, she fell into disgrace after it broke, and it was unclear if she would ever be able to resume her career in Hollywood again. GAC, however, appears to have completely forgiven her for what she did, and Chief Executive Officer William Abbott is ready to give her another chance.

Related: Lori Loughlin Breaks Her Silence After College Admissions Scandal – ‘I Was Down And Broken’

‘She’s America’s Sweetheart’

“She’s America’s sweetheart, regardless of what happened,” Abbott told Variety earlier this week. “At the end of the day, she represents all that is positive about entertainment, and has had a stellar career — not only on screen, but also the way she’s conducted herself personally, in terms of being someone who has a track record of doing the right thing in the world at large, aside from whatever happened. I don’t know the details.”

“She’s beloved and for good reason,” he added. “We’re very proud of our association with her and we want to make her part of the fabric.”

Abott also said that he and Loughlin “talk three times a week. We have two scripts that she really likes, one of which we’ll greenlight for this year or next year. Lori’s a good friend and somebody who we would love nothing more than to do a movie with, and we’re hopeful.”

Entertainment Tonight reported that one of these scripts turned out to be Fall Into Winter, which will see Loughlin playing a character named Keely, who is left shocked after finding out that her brother sold his half of their family-owned candy shop to his best friend from high school, who happens to be her nemesis. This leaves Keely having to find common ground with this antagonistic character, though something surprising may be in store for them both.

Related: See Lori Loughlin’s First Red Carpet Appearance Since Prison

Candace Cameron Bure Also At GAC Network

Loughlin will be joined at the GAC network by her former Full House and Fuller House co-star Candace Cameron Bure, 46, who also has a deal with the network. Cameron Bure recently told Variety that the GAC network is “representing family. It’s representing faith.”

“They are going to move much more forward in the faith content, and having both — still having lots of movies, rom-coms and Christmas movies that don’t involve faith, but also ones that really do,” she continued. “I think that’s that’s going to be a big difference in Great American Family channel, as well as patriotic content.”

Cameron Bure was one of the few people to defend Loughlin at the height of her college admissions scandal, so they will undoubtedly be happy to reunite at their new network. Given how many people she offended with her scandal, it will certainly be interesting to see how Loughlin is received as the potential new face of the GAC network.