Laughter is the best medicine for Sacha Baron Cohen. While speaking at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Grants Banquet, the comedian cracked a joke about Lori Loughlin’s daughters, Bella and Olivia Jade, amid the college admissions scandal.
Cohen, 47, listed off some pieces of memorabilia housed at the Smithsonian and Natural History Museums as he discussed their recent partnership with the HFPA. But it was one item in particular that left the crowd in stitches.
“There will also be exhibits from the world of fantasy, such as the ruby-red slippers worn by Judy Garland, the claws worn by Hugh Jackman in X-Men and the rowing boat sat in by Lori Laughlin’s daughter,” he quipped on stage at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, July 31.
One audience member cracked up so hard that the Borat actor immediately called him out. “You seem to be laughing too hard, sir,” he said before asking, “How did your daughter get into Harvard?”
Loughlin, 55, and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were arrested in March for allegedly paying $500,000 to have Bella, 20, and Olivia Jade, 19, labeled as crew team recruits so they would be accepted into the University of Southern California. The siblings had no prior experience with the sport.
The Full House alum and the fashion designer, 56, entered not guilty pleas to charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in April. The case is expected to go to trial in early 2020.
A source exclusively revealed in the new issue of Us Weekly that Bella and Olivia Jade were kicked out of their Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at USC in the wake of the headline-making bribery scandal. The YouTube personality has also lost several endorsement deals.
“The family is still very strained,” a second source told Us. “There’s a lot of deep-rooted hurt.”