Courtesy of Sophia Macy/Instagram
Felicity Huffman’s Daughter Sophia Macy Gets Backlash Amid TV Casting After College Admissions Scandal
A new endeavor! Felicity Huffman’s oldest daughter, Sophia Macy, will be starring in an episode of Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access — 10 months after her mom was involved in the nationwide college admissions scandal. On Sunday, January 12, it was revealed that the 19-year-old will appear in the fifth episode of the season called “Among the Untrodden” alongside actress Abbie Hern, but some fans aren’t too pleased with the teenager.
One day after the news was announced at the winter Television Critics Association press tour, the upcoming actress took to Instagram to reveal how excited she is. “Been wanting to talk about this for a MINUTE!” she captioned a photo of the cast including Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs and Billy Porter on January 13. “I’m so so grateful @abbiehern_. I love you, and I love acting with you. #TwilightZone #CBSAllAccess.”
Naturally, fans and friends flooded her comments section with uplifting messages. One person wrote, “Happy for you! I knew you were destined to be an actress the day I saw you perform as Tinkerbell!” while another echoed, “You deserve this and all the happiness and everything else in the world!! So flipping happy for you!!!!!!” A third person chimed in, writing, “So so deserved.”
But some social media users weren’t too happy with the starlet. “I dropped out of college with a 4.0 GPA at SUNY/Albany because my widowed mother ran out of money, and she had been earning so much leading up to it that I didn’t qualify for aid. Your privilege disgusts me but it also causes me to pity you. You really don’t know how insufferable you are,” one person wrote. Another added, “Sophia Macy cheated her way into college with her parents’ help, and now she has landed a role in Jordan Peele’s #TwilightZone. Meanwhile, hardworking college students like my son and daughter don’t have wealthy parents and will probably struggle for years.”
It’s been quite a year for the Macy family as the Desperate Housewives actress, 57, spent 11 days in jail instead of 14 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, in late October after she pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services in April. The Hollywood A-lister paid $15,000 to boost Sophia’s SAT scores so she could get into an elite college. Felicity — who also shares 17-year-old daughter Georgia with William H. Macy — was also sentenced to complete 250 hours of community service and has to pay a $30,000 fine for her wrongdoings.
Luckily, it seems like Sophia is able to move on from her mom’s mistakes while Georgia was accepted into college on her own and is attending Vassar in the fall. However, it seems like Felicity is remorseful of her actions and what she put her family through. “Prison really opened her eyes to a whole new world,” a source told In Touch exclusively. “It was very isolating. She felt trapped and claustrophobic, but she never complained. She didn’t have an appetite, she lost a little weight, but she did eat some of the food, which wasn’t tasty at all.”
At the end of the day, the New York native is looking forward to the future. “This scandal ripped her life apart and made her look at who she really was as a person,” another insider told In Touch. “She really strived to be a good parent, neighbor and an upstanding citizen. She made some huge mistakes, but she’s humbled now. It was a huge reality check.”
It seems like Felicity’s daughters are moving on from the drama once and for all.
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