Could Lori Loughlin's prison time be cut short because of COVID-19? Plus, more news

By Wonderwall.com Editors 2:21pm PDT, May 22, 2020

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli could end up serving less time than their plea deals called for, thanks to the pandemic

On Friday, May 22, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli entered one guilty plea each of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in the nationwide college admissions scandal, in exchange for prison time (two months for Loughlin, five for Giannulli), community service and $400,000 in fines. By the time they logged onto Zoom to enter their remote pleas, however, multiple outlets were reporting the strain COVID-19 has put on the federal prison system could mean much less time behind bars for the former "Fuller House" star and her designer husband. Citing a late March memo from the Attorney General regarding the virus' serious spread in the prison system, Forbes reported Thursday that nearly 3,000 inmates had been sent into home confinement. Given the current rising numbers of positive COVID cases in prisons and the non-violent nature of Loughlin and Giannulli's crime, the outlet suggested the pandemic might keep them from ever going to prison at all. Other reports quoted criminal defense attorneys who noted that while Felicity Huffman served only 11 days of her two-week sentence after taking a plea deal, the pandemic has been so unpredictable it's hard to know where it will stand come Loughlin and Giannulli's sentencing, currently scheduled for Aug. 21. The couple's guilty pleas come after allegations they paid $500,000 in bribes to admissions scandal mastermind Rick Springer to get their daughters, Olivia Jade and Bella Giannulli into USC as rowing recruits, despite their never having rowed crew. Reports about the girls' reactions have ranged from Us Weekly's claim the two "were devastated" their parents would plead guilty after having maintained their innocence to People's assertion that the sisters were "supportive" of their parents' decision.

Keep reading to see how Jessica Simpson marked her 10-year anniversary with Eric Johnson …

Jessica Simpson pens sweet anniversary tribute to Eric Johnson

Jessica Simpson and her husband Eric Johnson celebrated their tenth anniversary on Thursday and the milestone made Jessica wax poetic about her "perfect" guy on Instagram. "I fell head over slippers in love with this perfect man 10 YEARS ago today!" she captioned a selfie of the pair. "By chance he knocked on my dreamy cottage door (sigh), I let him in and never let him leave. He is mine, I am his…forever #MAY212010." Jessica and Eric got engaged less than six months after that day at the cottage but enjoyed a long engagement before saying "I do" in 2014. They share kids Maxwell, 8, Ace, 6, and Birdie, who just turned 1 in March.

Denzel Washington comes to the aid of an apparently homeless man in need of help

The social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines that remain in place across much of the country might make some people less likely to interact with strangers, let alone the homeless. Not good samaritan, Denzel Washington, though. TMZ published footage of the Oscar winner getting out of his car to help a man who was standing in the street, seemingly endangering himself in the oncoming traffic, in the West Hollywood section of Los Angeles on Thursday. The clip shows Denzel, wearing a mask, speaking to the man, wearing no mask, after guiding him safely to the sidewalk. At one point Denzel puts a hand on the man's shoulder as police joined them to see what was wrong. Another moment shows the actor giving the man something to eat and drink. In the clip the man appears to be distressed before being detained by police, who look like they may have been conducting a welfare check to make sure he was OK, as he was reportedly later released.

Pamela Anderson sounds off on her Tommy Lee sex tape and 2017's 'Baywatch' movie

Pamela Anderson would like the record to show that the "sex tape" she made with her then-new husband Tommy Lee in 1995 was not, in fact, a sex tape. Pamela, 57, stopped by Thursday's "Watch What Happens Live," and was promptly asked by Andy Cohen (via Us Weekly), "As the star of an iconic sex tape, what is your favorite celebrity sex tape?" Her perfect response: "That was not a sex tape. It was a compilation of vacations that we were naked on." The "compilation" was leaked after someone stole the original footage from the "Baywatch" alum and Tommy's home. Speaking of "Baywatch," Pamela also sounded off on the 2017 "Baywatch" movie, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Zac Efron. "I didn't like it," she said. "Let's just keep the bad TV as bad TV. That's what's charming about it. Trying to make these movies that are television are just messing with it." She added that the movie didn't seem to maximize its $65 million budget, either. "Sixty-five million dollars could make a great movie," she said. "We made our shows for like $500,000. We had the same explosions, the same scenes in the water. That was the fun part — being creative."

Katy Perry jokes she's turning into Shrek and Orlando Bloom turning into The Hulk in quarantine

With her first child due this summer and her fiance, Orlando Bloom devoting even more time to his "pro-style cycling" hobby in quarantine, Katy Perry has noticed a trend. "I'm turning into Shrek, size-wise, and Orlando is turning into The Hulk," she joked during an interview with Radio.com published this week. On a more serious note, she admitted that being on lockdown with little information about the future of the coronavirus pandemic has been a bit rough, especially given her pregnancy. "It's a real, real time for me," she said during the live video chat. "Feel all the feelings. I'm a planner. I'm a super-planner. And in the past, I've been a perfectionist or slash control freak, and all perfectionist slash control freaks are spiraling right now. And planners are spiraling. So, I'm spiraling a little bit, like, every day." Katy added that she also "[chalks] it up to the uncertainty of being pregnant for the first time and having a child and not knowing." She checked in with the outlet to talk about her forthcoming album, due out Aug. 14, and explained that the writing on the album came out of a similar place of feeling "all the feelings." Katy was clinically depressed at the time, she told Radio.com, but she still hears hope in the new music. "It's definitely me wearing my heart on my sleeve and, it is what it is," she said. "I hope people embrace the songs as their own. That's all I care about."

Kevin Hart slams 'cancel culture:' 'We need to let people grow'

Kevin Hart's promoting a new audiobook, "The Decision," recovering from injuries he sustained in a serious car accident and getting ready to welcome his fourth child. He's also still determined to change people's minds about "cancel culture," a trend that nearly derailed his career. The topic took up a large portion of his Instagram Live interview with O, The Oprah Magazine, on Thurday, in which he expressed frustration about pop culture's seeming refusal to "let people grow" after past mistakes. "We're living in a time where we're just expecting perfect, as if people don't slip and fall down the steps, or everybody walks straight all the time. But you stumble … it's weird to really hold people at a level that they never asked to be held at," said the comic, who's faced would-be "cancellation" ever since homophobic tweets he posted years ago resurfaced in 2018 (via ET). "If babies came out with all the knowledge, then what's the point of going from age one through 21?" he asked, according to JustJared. He went on to assert that today's culture has adopted a "search and … destroy" mission with regard to the pasts of people now in the spotlight. "It's, like, people determine when your end button is pushed, but that's not how it works. We need to lose that attitude and feeling and let people grow."

Bethenny Frankel and her charity were almost swindled while trying to secure PPE for healthcare workers

Fraudsters are having a field day with the pandemic — and they're not just targeting individuals. Bethenny Frankel recently recounted to the New York Times the "disheartening" experience she and her charity BStrong had while trying to purchase 500 million medical-grade masks to donate to health care workers in New York, Michigan, Arizona, Louisiana and Chicago, where supplies were running especially low. She said she was put in touch with a man based in Idaho named Jake Uhlenkott, whom she said claimed he could help. But as she began working on funding and distribution plans, assuming the deal would go through, things got sketchy. "Everybody knew a guy who knew a guy. You feel like you're in a Moroccan bazaar, and wherever you're turning, left and right, everybody is holding shiny objects," she said. She said her contact repeatedly offered to get more masks for her charity but he wouldn't tell her exactly where they were coming from. She told the paper it turned out his "original source for … masks was real … but to find supply already in North America, he went with a new seller who turned out to be slippery." At that point, he put her in touch with his contacts instead and stepped out of the middle man's role. Working with the state of New York, Bethenny said she finally arranged a deal to snag 10 million 3M masks for $66.5 million with a guy named Ralph Frengel. But the seller wouldn't let the buyers inspect the masks before forking over the money, so Bethenny said they ditched the whole thing. According to the Times, Frengel and one of the two people he was working with had spent time in prison for shady, money and property-related dealings. Bethenny ultimately got 2 million-plus masks and gowns to those in need across the country via multiple other deals. "It's so disheartening," she said. "At the racetrack, you think you might get screwed. But when you're dealing with the biggest health crisis in 100 years, you have to be a really sick, sick, bad person to exploit that."

Why Jerry Seinfeld will never do another comedy special after '23 Hours to Kill' or another sitcom after 'Seinfeld'

Sorry, "Seinfeld" fans. The namesake of the beloved series will never embark on another sitcom venture — and his new Netflix special, "23 Hours to Kill," will most likely be his last. Speaking to Howard Stern on his Sirius show this week, Jerry Seinfeld, 66, minced no words in his explanation of either decision. "I don't like seeing old people on TV. I don't want to inflict myself on people in a deteriorated state," he said when asked about a possible return to the sitcom format, according to Deadline. As for comedy specials, Stern suggested Seinfeld worried another one might not be perfect enough to air. "I think you got me there," Seinfeld admitted. "I am a perfectionist that way. That's why I obviously never did another TV series. I'm not going to try and beat that. I can't beat that. I already have the material to do another special. But I always like to give a little less than you really want. A little less. We could've done one, two, three more years (of 'Seinfeld'). The reason people still love that show is we didn't wear it out." Seinfeld's new stand-up special marks the comic's first recording of all-new material in more than two decades.

Fans are predicting a 'Parent Trap' reunion is in the works

Is "The Parent Trap" getting its own COVID reunion? The 1998 film, a remake of the 1961 version, featured Lindsay Lohan as both of a pair of twin sisters. This week, the movie's director Nancy Meyers teased on Instagram: "I have some #ParentTrap news to share next week. #ItsGoingToBeFun. (Not a sequel. Sorry!)" alongside a photo that showed her working out blocking with a possibly tween-aged girl. Though she shared no other details, the recent quarantine has sparked reunions of other shows and movies including "Parks and Rec," "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Goonies." Lindsay also retweeted a Daily Mail story on Nancy's post, sparking fans to predict something reunion-esque could be on the horizon for Nancy, Lindsay and Dennis Quaid, who played the father of Lindsay's twin characters. The late Natasha Richardson played the girls' mom.

Hailey Bieber denies plastic surgery accusations

Hailey Bieber clapped back at a critic this week after she was accused on Instagram of having had work done to her face. The troll in question, @beautyambra, has since removed the post, but a screenshot captured by a fan account (via Teen Vogue) shows Hailey weighing in on side-by-side pics of her as a little girl versus today. Hailey's face is somewhat less defined in the childhood pic (uh, because … childhood?) and a little rounder. But Hailey's main issue with the post was the fact that as a model, all kinds of folks have editing power over photos of her. "Stop using pics that are edited by makeup artists!" she wrote in the comments. "This photo on the right is NOT what I look like….I've never touched my face so if you're gonna sit around and compare me at 13 and then me at 23, at least use a natural photo that wasn't edited so crazy."