Did anyone else get a confusing letter from Viterbo? Congratulations, you were fantastic, etc. and then welcoming you into the “Theatre” program? We kind of filed it away when it arrived a while back assuming it was basically a confusing no because it didn’t mention musical theatre. Why do schools do this?
So these rich actresses and others bribed their kids’ way into good colleges (USC, Georgetown, Wake Forest) by passing them off as athletes. I wonder if any have tried to bribe their way into performing arts programs? https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/college-admissions-cheating-felicity-huffman-lori-loughlin/index.html
@afterp89 - I saw William H Macy at the Chicago Unifieds. He was there with one of his children (who I did not see). I saw him in the executive floor of the Palmer at breakfast one morning. Felicity Huffmann is his wife. Hmmm…
@afterp89 William H Macy was at Unifieds in Chicago as his daughter was auditioning. Will be interesting to see how this story unfolds.
You would think that with the money they were spending on bribes they could have hired tutors/coaches etc. to try to get their kids in legitimately. So sad people resort to this.
My D kept hearing from friends that their moms were fangirling over William H. Macy at Unifieds. Feel bad for his daughter if she has the legit talent to make it on her own because she may have a black cloud following her to college.
@brieduck, my D was accepted to Viterbo, BFA for MT and it was very clearly stated that it was BFA and MT.
The TMZ article on Felicity Huffman says she paid a $15K bribe to get extra time for her daughter to take the SAT and get her answers “corrected”. Raised her score to 1420, 400 points over her PSAT. I don’t know if this is the same daughter that was auditioning at Chicago Unifieds or not. I don’t know how many daughters Macy and Huffman have.
@MTSongbirdMom A bunch of moms were fangirling Macy at breakfast in the Exec lounge.
I just watched the full press conference. I agree it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds, but before we all get our pitchforks and torches…it appears at least with Huffman, they decided not to pursue this unscrupulous method with their younger child and William H Macy wasn’t named…yet. Bribes work both ways… one party has to “give” and another party has to “take”. It will indeed be interesting to see who the takers were. I feel awful for the kids caught in the middle (at least the ones who were not involved)…their parents just ruined their college career them…
If you have the chance, please watch the whole press conference…it provides more information than the sound bites the media provides… I’m not defending anyone, I just think there’s going to be a whole lot more to this story…my $0.02…
it said in the article online re: Felicity Huffman that she paid the money for the first daughter but declined to do same thing for second daughter? If I read that right…
So perhaps the first daughter had issues as it said she paid for the SAT score etc. She got a 1420…after it was supposedly corrected after she took it by the person they paid.
So interesting to read about the elite and their first world problems…
I feel bad for Huffman/Macy’s daughters. I’m sure a bunch of admissions officers are considering rejecting their applications right now because of this.
Love Macy. Sorry I missed him at the Palmer House, but glad I missed the fangirling.
Feel sorry for their daughter. Almost certainly talented but no matter where she goes there will be people who question how she got in. As someone who would do whatever I could to help my D, you also have to take a step back and consider the secondary and tertiary consequences of your actions - which is why I haven’t contacted schools that offered “less than” audition experiences because of any potential backlash against her. Nothing is done or said in a vacuum.
She is getting arrested (the mother).
I didn’t read the article and I won’t - I think it’s very easy for tabloids to trash people. My younger D has a learning disability diagnosed in the 1st grade and she gets extra time on tests. If I added up all of the money we spent on tutoring and remediation and psychologists tests over the years it might add up to that much. I don’t regret a penny of it, it kept my kid learning and achieving at a level that was commeasurate with her potential. But people could totally twist it around and say we purchased her educational achievements - it would be a lie, but they could slant it that way. Most celebrities will take the high road and not sue for libel when tabloids smear them because it keeps the buzz going. I will say that I worked for a studio where Felicity Hoffman was employed and never heard a word against her - she had a rep as a very level-headed, pleasant and professional actor. I kind of doubt schools will listen to trash talk when making admissions decisions.
The criminal complaint is unambiguous that she paid to have her daughter’s answered changed. There are transcripts of multiple conversations she had about it.
The Department of Justice has posted its info for the public to review.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme
She paid for the older daughter the younger daughter is the one auditioning this year.
@CaMom13 I understand she was probably great to work with and very conscientious but this isn’t a tabloid smear job. This is a federal indictment.
@MTBackstagemom congrats to your D on Viterbo! We knew that it was actually a no, but it was stated so strangely. Because I’d heard of this before we didn’t read too much into the “congratulations” either. It was very bizarre though.
I read the indictment. Pretty damning. I do feel sorry for the kids if they were unaware this was happening.