“Fuller House” star Lori Loughlin and “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman appeared in federal court in Boston, Ma. this week but the pair — and Loughlin’s husband, designer Mossimo Gianulli, who was also initially indicted — could be getting ready to negotiate plea deals. However, officials are saying the celebrity parents could likely still face prison time as a condition of any pleas.

“You can’t have people being treated differently because they have money. That’s how we got to this place. Every defendant will be treated the same,” one official said in an interview.

Loughlin and Gianulli are out on $1 million bails after they were charged on counts related to paying $500,000 to “college admissions consultant” Richard Singer to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California.

Felicity Huffman, whose husband, actor William H. Macy, was not among the 50 people indicted over the college admissions scandal, is accused of paying Singer $15,000 to alter their daughter’s SAT scores.

Both Huffman and Loughlin face conspiracy and mail fraud charges that could see them facing up to five years in federal prison if convicted.

Fraud is fraud. Or maybe not.

These revelations are in stark contrast to the last real-life celebrity legal drama in which “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett had all the charges against him dropped after a grand jury returned a true bill declaring there was enough reasonable cause to prosecute him for orchestrating a hoax hate crime. Smollett, who is African American and gay, claimed he was attacked by two white men wearing “Make America Great Again” hats during the polar vortex in January.

As in the Smollett case, the U.S. attorney for the federal court district will decide on whether to offer or accept a plea deal in any of the college admissions scandal cases, but a federal judge will make the final call on whether the actors will ultimately be allowed to skip prison time.

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