Do you have an insatiable appetite for all things Operation Varsity Blues, the college-admissions scandal that implicated many hot and rich people for buying their unqualified children into elite colleges? (This is always what the wealthy and powerful have done, but this crossed the line from “My mom donated a building†to “My dad told me to sit on this rowing machine and lie in my essay about my love of crew so I’d be recruited for a sport I’ve never played.â€) Do you also have an unquenchable thirst for movies that are so bad they are good? Well, hoo boy, do I have a gift for you. The trailer dropped Friday for Lifetime’s College Admissions Scandal, a movie with the world’s most literal title based on Operation Varsity Blues. It premieres October 12.
It stars Penelope Ann Miller and Mia Kirshner — an actor whose presence in anything prompts me to immediately scream “UGH, JENNY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD†— in roles inspired by Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, two of the highest-profile folks implicated in the scandal. (Huffman pleaded guilty and now faces from four to ten months in prison and a fine of $20,000 plus restitution; Loughlin, and her husband, pleaded not guilty.) “You’re worth every penny of the half a million dollars we paid you,†Kirshner says in the trailer in a very normal and totally not stilted way, because she absolutely does not know the Feds are listening on the other end of the line and that’s just how normal humans not looking to get charged with fraud talk. Oscars 2020, here we come.