The courtroom artist who drew Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin during the actresses’ respective court appearances said they looked “very different.”
Mona Edwards was in the Los Angeles court on March 13 when Loughlin, 54, best known as “Aunt Becky” from “Full House,” appeared after surrendering to police on conspiracy charges.
She was also present when Huffman, 56, best known for playing “Lynette Scavo” on “Desperate Housewives,” appeared in court a day earlier on the same charges.
Contrasting what transpired, Edwards said the two court appearances were dramatically different.
“Loughlin had her arms crossed in a fairly deflective and defensive pose, almost the entirety of the hearing. In the sketch, I wanted to show her pose: straight, unflinching, perhaps angry. She certainly looked the part!” Edwards told InStyle magazine. “She was very well put together—hair, makeup—as if she had time to get ready and look great for her ‘appearance.’ Her choice of white turtleneck was perhaps a statement of purity and innocence?”
While Loughlin’s legal team negotiated her surrender for Wednesday, after she traveled from filming for a television show, Huffman was detained by FBI agents with guns drawn who burst into her house on Tuesday morning.
Edwards, who has a huge portfolio that includes Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, and Kendall Jenner, said that along with Huffman’s weary appearance, the two women had “totally different attitude, expression, and the way that the body was held.”
“She didn’t have the time element Loughlin had,” Edwards told Yahoo of Huffman. “So obviously she didn’t have time to call a makeup artist and say, ‘Hey, can you make me look great for court today.’”
She said Loughlin was defiant while Huffman was sheepish. The latter had her head down most of the time in court, according to the sketch artist.
“I think Huffman was more authentic and genuine,” she added. “I was thinking I made her too stern. But that’s what she looked like. There’s this thin line about whether I want to please the public and draw something [they’d like to see] or draw something warts and all and I choose [the latter].”
Loughlin, she added, had “kind of a defensive deflection like: Don’t touch me. What am I doing here? Where are my people? When am I getting out? It was so defiant.”
“Loughlin came off, and I think it showed in my drawings, a little arrogant. An illustrator can bring that out maybe more than a camera. However, I wasn’t being subjective. I was just drawing what I saw.” She added, “The way people stand, their body language, their attitude—it all plays a part in an illustration.”
Charges
Federal prosecutors said that Loughlin, her husband Mossimo Giannulli, and Huffman were among 33 parents who bribed William “Rick” Singer for his assistance in getting their children into elite colleges.
Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of giving Singer $500,000 to get Olivia Jade, 19, and Isabella, 20, into the University of Southern California by designating them as recruits for the rowing team despite the fact they didn’t row competitively.
Huffman, meanwhile, paid Singer $15,000 in exchange for a third-party, an associate of Singer, to proctor her older daughter’s SAT so the daughter could cheat, prosecutors said. The daughter received a score of 1,420, approximately 400 higher than her PSAT, which was taken one year earlier. Huffman also discussed repeating the scheme for her younger daughter.
William Singer pleaded guilty to orchestrating the scheme on Tuesday and prosecutors said he’s been cooperating with them.
Huffman’s husband, actor William Macy, was not charged in the scheme.
