The "Gossip Girl" revival went for relevancy with a snarky commentary about Loughlin going to prison after the college admissions scandal -- and daughter Olivia was watching!
Celebrities are certainly used to being talked about by some of their favorite television characters, and even sometimes find themselves the butt of a joke.
It must be a surreal experience even beyond hearing your name and jokes about you on late-night television or "Saturday Night Live" to hear your name and story crop up in a scripted show. But that's just what happened to Olivia Jade with the new "Gossip Girl."
Olivia Jade Learned Something 'Inspirational' After Her 'Public Shaming' Experience
View StoryThe revival of the deliciously trashy CW series over on HBO Max went for peak relevancy by having its young characters cracking jokes about the 2019 college admissions scandal, that wound up embroiling Olivia and her famous mother Lori Loughlin, along with Felicity Huffman and many other rich and influential people.
The scene in question hit about midway through the revival's premiere, with the rich prep kids talking about winning and losing, and how the former is essential at all costs.
"Everything will be fine so long as you win," Luna (Zión Moreno) said at one point. "Olivia Jade gained followers when her mom went to jail."
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View StoryJumping on her TikTok, Olivia filmed herself in front of the "GG" scene playing out behind her. As that line was delivered, she started shaking her head. "No, I didn't," she said with a smirk.
She also disabled comments on the platform, per Just Jared. She also is correct, as E! News reports that Olivia's follower count on Instagram remained largely unaffected by the scandal, and she actually lost YouTube subscribers.
She also lost a lot of sponsorships that she'd been lining up as her social media influencer career was taking off. Olivia went silent for a while after the scandal broke, where it was revealed her mother and father, Mossimo Giannulli, had lied and paid money for her and her sister to get into USC.
Olivia Jade Says She Doesn't Want to 'Rehash Things' As She Returns With YouTube Video
View StoryOlivia ultimately withdrew from college and eventually returned to the space she was more interested in anyway, her social media platforms.
While they say there's no such thing as bad press, that may not be the case here as the scandal definitely had an impact on Olivia's chosen career. She may be more recognizable than ever, and well-known outside of her platforms, but not for the reasons she'd prefer.
Clearly, she's trying to take some ownership of the scandal, for which she was never officially deemed complicit, now that it's in the rearview. Or maybe she's just wanting to make sure that even the jokes about it are based on fact.
New episodes of the new "Gossip Girl" drop every Thursday on HBO Max.