How Huffman's scandal could throw Netflix into chaos

Actress Felicity Huffman arrives to the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Photo / Getty

Things went downhill for actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman last week when they were both caught up in a college bribery scandal trying to get their children into top U.S. universities.

The alleged crimes included cheating on entrance exams, as well as bribing college officials to say certain students were coming to compete on athletic teams when those students were not in fact athletes, officials said.

Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy and daughter Georgia Grace Macy arrive at a Los Angeles VIP Screening. Photo / Getty

Huffman has since been fired from the Hallmark Channel for her alleged role in the scandal and also her role in Netflix's Fuller House according to The New York Post.

This puts Netflix in a tight spot when it debuts its Central Park Five limited series When They See Us which is scheduled to air on May 31.

Felicity, an Emmy winner for Desperate Housewives and series American Crime, is playing Linda Fairstein, the former head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office from 1976 to 2002.

Her office supervised the prosecution of the five young men arrested — and later exonerated — for beating and raping a Central Park jogger in 1989.

But the problem will lie with Netflix being prepared to withstand the backlash that will no doubt greet this performance on social media.

Netflix has chosen not to comment on the matter, merely saying production has wrapped.

The streaming giant fired House of Cards actor Kevin Spacey after he faced sexual assault allegations in 2017 and the company shelved his film Gore about writer and historian Gore Vidal.