In the latest episode of Larry David’s HBO series, Lori Loughlin sends up her criminal past by portraying a more devious version of herself, willing to lie and cheat to get ahead at a country club and on the golf course.
The latest celebrity to play a heightened — and generally worse — version of themselves on Larry David’s HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm was Lori Loughlin, who leaned into the controversy surrounding her involvement in the 2019 college admissions scandal.
Executive producer Jeff Schaffer said that when writer Teddy Bressman pitched the idea, they knew that getting the Full House alum was the only way. “It’s not going to be funny with some sort of thinly veiled surrogate,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “It only works if we get Lori.”
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Luckily, her manager loved it and then Loughlin herself purportedly said, “I’m in. I’m totally game.” According to Schaffer, she was all in. “Everything we threw at her, she was game to do,” he said. “She makes the episode. I’m so glad she wanted to do it.”
In the episode, Lori’s application at the country club Larry frequents was in jeopardy because of the college admissions scandal that saw her spend two months in prison.
As part of a much larger operation that saw more than 50 convictions, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli were among those charged with paying professional fixers to help get their children into more prestigious schools.
Back in the episode, after memorizing the Gettysburg Address while urinating — because he hates the idea of all that time going to waste — Larry uses a version of it to convince the club to give her a chance. It’s only after he sticks his neck out for her that Larry discovers her more hyper-competitive and opportunistic side.
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First, he asks her how she got a blue handicapped flag for her golf cart, with her shooting back, “I have Epstein-Barr … one hematologist thinks so.” Later, though, when he asks about her handicap plate, she seems to have completely forgotten about the disease.
At another point, she manages to get her tee time changed to an earlier slot, with Larry finding out she gave the guy “50 reasons” to change the time. Perhaps most egregiously — to hardcore golfers — it would appear she lied about her score on one hole!
Schaffer said that they pitched the general concept to Loughlin to gauge her reaction. “You get into the club, and then we find out how ultra-competitive you are, and how you’re willing to bend the rules or break them,” they told her, and she was all for it.
“Once she agreed, we really started hammering out the details of the script,” he continued. “She saw how funny it was and was into it immediately.”
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According to Schaffer, this role is a way for Loughlin to shed some of that specter looming over her career and public persona. “It’s great to be able to laugh at yourself. It’s a great way to put the past behind you,” he said.
“I hope it helps her career. She was great, and she should work,” he continued. “She was really funny and wonderful to work with. People should see, ‘Oh, she’s really funny. She’s great in this stuff.’ So yeah, I hope she does get to work because she deserves to.”
After her release from prison in December 2020, Loughlin did return to Hallmark for a guest appearance on When Hope Calls, reprising the role she held for six seasons on parent series When Calls the Heart until the scandal cost her that gig and her role on Fuller House.
It would mark her first return to acting since her release. She’s since followed that up with roles in two films for Great American Family before landing this one-episode guest stint with David.
The final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm continues every Sunday on HBO.
