Martha Stewart, who famously served prison time for insider trading, said she sympathized with celebrities Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin after they were snared in the college admissions scandal.
“I just feel sorry for them,” the 77-year-old domestic goddess said Tuesday night on the red carpet at the Time 100 Gala in New York. “They might have made a bad mistake.”
Huffman, Loughlin and dozens of other well-heeled parents were accused by federal authorities this year of bribing their children into elite colleges.
“Entertainment Tonight’s” Brooke Anderson asked Stewart about the scandal, noting her own past legal drama.
Stewart was charged in 2003 with securities fraud and obstruction of justice in connection with insider stock trading. She was sentenced to five months’ incarceration and two years of supervised release.
Once she was freed from a minimum-security federal prison in West Virginia, Stewart said: “That you can make lemons out of lemonade? What hurts you makes you stronger? No. None of those adages fit at all. It’s a horrible experience. Nothing is good about it, nothing.”
Huffman and Loughlin both have a long way to go in their legal battles.
Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have pleaded not guilty to charges they paid $500,000 in bribes to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as crew recruits. Neither of their children are rowers.
Huffman agreed to plead guilty to charges of mail fraud and honest services fraud. She’ll appear, alongside 12 other parents who have agreed to plead guilty, in court on May 21.
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