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Eva Longoria and other stars write letters of support for Felicity Huffman ahead of sentencing

The actress is facing jail time for her involvement in the US college admissions scandal

Eva Longoria and Felicity Huffman | Instagram

Eva Longoria and a host of other celebrities have written letters of support for Felicity Huffman ahead of her sentencing.

The actress was one of nearly 40 individuals charged in connection with an alleged college entrance exam scheme back in March.

The ‘scheme’ allegedly involved helping students cheat on entrance exams at elite universities like Yale, Stanford and Georgetown.

According to court documents, Felicity made a “charitable contribution” of $15,000 to participate in the scheme, on behalf of her daughter.

Felicity, who was ‘secretly’ recorded discussing the scheme with a co-operating witness, pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud and honest services mail fraud back in May.

According to CNN, the US government have requested that the actress be sentenced to a month of prison, followed by 12 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

But Felicity’s attorneys are trying to avoid any jail time by asking for a year’s probation, 250 hours of community service, and a $20,000 fine for her involvement.

Her attorney’s filing included 27 letters of support – one of the letters came from her actor husband William H. Macy, and another from actress Eva Longoria.

Credit: FayesVision/WENN.com

In her letter of support, Eva described Felicity as a “good friend” and said she saw her “every day, of every week for nearly 15 hours a day,” while filming Desperate Housewives from 2004 – 2012.

Eva wrote: “When I began the TV show, I was very new to the business and industry as a whole. Felicity was the first one to take me under her wing.”

“From the first table read of the script, she noticed me sitting alone, scared and unsure of where to go and what to do. Her gentle character and kind heart immediately opened up to me.”

Eva said “one of the most significant examples of Felicity’s kindness” was when she helped her with contract negotiations.

“I was the lowest paid actor on the show, by far. Felicity and the other ladies were making much more than I was because I was the most inexperienced,” Eva wrote.

“Felicity brought up that we should negotiate together, something we call favored nations that means we all make the same. This meant that my salary would significantly increase and I would be on par with the more experienced actors.”

“Well needless to say, that did not go over too well with the others. But Felicity stood up for me, saying it was fair because the success of the show depended on all of us, not one of us,” she said.

In William H. Macy’s letter of support, he described how Felicity’s arrest deeply affected their family.

He wrote: “Our oldest daughter has certainly paid the dearest price. She had been accepted to a few schools, but her heart was set on one in particular which, ironically, doesn’t require SAT scores.”

Felicity and husband William H. Macy | Instagram

“She started as one of several thousand applicants and after making it through many auditions, she flew to the school two days after her mom’s arrest for the final selections. When she landed, the school emailed her withdrawing their invitation to audition.”

William said their daughter “called us from the airport in hysterics,” begging them to “do something, please, please do something.”

He continued: “From the devastation of that day, Sophia is slowly regaining her equilibrium and getting on with her life. She still doesn’t like to sleep alone and has nightmares from the FBI agents waking her that morning with guns drawn.”

“But of course, Felicity has borne the brunt of this. The paparazzi was camped outside our home for the first month or so, and they still have an uncanny knack of finding her. Felicity rarely leaves the house.”

William concluded his letter by writing: “If I may I’d like to tell you one more thing: every good thing in my life is because of Felicity Huffman.”

Felicity will be sentenced on September 13 in Boston, Massachusetts.

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