This is an opinion.
- Felicity Huffman has a new job.
- The actress, who booked the job just over a year after her Federal prison stint, will star in a new ABC comedy.
- While Huffman is acting like nothing ever happened, other high-profile women — especially Black women, and women of color — aren’t so lucky.
Felicity Huffman landed an acting gig.
Just over a year after serving a whole eleven days for her role in the so-called “college admissions scandal,” the longtime actress landed a plum deal with ABC, where she’ll be starring in a sitcom based on the life of Susan Savage, an unlikely baseball team owner.
It’s great that she has a job, and was able to bounce back from a clearly terrible time in her life. However, she was able to do so because she has the complexion for the protection, plain and simple.
Felicity Huffman Bounced Back
In this “single-camera show,” which Felicity Huffman is also executive producing, the former “Desperate Housewives” actress is billing this role as her “acting comeback.” She seems to be getting a lot of advanced buzz for the role, and it’s being touted by the critics as a good addition to her acting resume.
But as Deadline reports, it wasn’t surprising that Felicity Huffman got an acting role so soon after her prison stint.
The Emmy-winning actress has been heavily courted for TV series and pilots since she completed her short prison sentence after pleading guilty to fraud more than a year ago. Kaplan approached Huffman with the idea about a series inspired by Savage, which she responded to. He brought on Hartman Edwards as a writer, and Gottsagen, who has a talent deal with Kapital, came on board to co-star opposite Huffman. The project was taken out, attracting multiple offers and ultimately landing at ABC.
Check out a news report about the deal in the video below.
Your (White) Privilege Is Showing
So not only is Felicity Huffman being seen as a great investment by networks, she was actively being courted by producers despite her role in a Federal college admissions scam.
If that isn’t white privilege at work, nothing is.
Don’t believe me? Look at the difference between Huffman’s post-prison life and the life of Black celebrities who also served Federal prison time: Lauryn Hill, Lil’Kim, Wesley Snipes. All three served Federal time for non-violent and “white-collar” crimes, but how many plush acting gigs were waiting for Wesley Snipes when he got out of jail? (Spoiler alert: none.)
And I’m not the only one who’s noticed this.
It must be nice to be Felicity Huffman and have a nice, cushy job waiting for you when you get out of Federal prison. I’m sure we can expect Lori Loughlin to get offers left and right when she finally gets out.
Sounds about white.
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