RuPaul's Drag Race: Sherry Pie Disqualified From Season 12 Over Catfishing Controversy
Joey Gugliemelli, better known to RuPaul’s Drag Race fans as Sherry Pie, has been disqualified from Season 12 ahead of his debut on tonight’s episode (VH1, 8/7c).
According to an explosive report from BuzzFeed News, Gugliemelli spent several years posing as a casting director and soliciting degrading audition tapes from young aspiring actors. Following the report’s publication on Thursday, Gugliemelli released the following statement on social media:
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This is Joey, I want to start by saying how sorry I am that I caused such trauma and pain and how horribly embarrassed and disgusted I am with myself. I know that the pain and hurt that I have caused will never go away and I know that what I did was wrong and truly cruel. Until being on RuPaul’s Drag Race, I never really understood how much my mental health and taking care of things meant. I learned on that show how important “loving yourself” is and I don’t think I have ever loved myself. I have been seeking help and receiving treatment since coming back to NYC. I truly apologize to everyone I have hurt with my actions. I also want to say how sorry I am to my sisters of season 12 and honestly the whole network and production company. All I can do is change the behavior and that starts with me and doing that work.
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VH1 and World of Wonder, the show’s production company, released the following joint statement on Friday: “In light of recent developments and Sherry Pie’s statement, Sherry Pie has been disqualified from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Out of respect for the hard work of the other queens, VH1 will air the season finale as planned. Sherry will not appear in the grand finale scheduled to be filmed later this spring.”
Prior to Sherry, the only contestant to have been disqualified from Drag Race was Willam, who broke the no-outside-visits rule back in Season 4.
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