‘Drag Race’ season 12’s Sherry Pie apologises after being accused of ‘catfishing’ for explicit videos
Five men have accused the drag queen of posing as a casting director and requesting embarrassing or explicit videos.
By Will Stroude
Update – 22:39, 6 March 2020: Sherry Pie has been disqualified from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12. Full statement from producers below.
“In light of recent developments and Sherry Pie’s statement, Sherry Pie has been disqualified from RuPaul’s Drag Race….
— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) March 6, 2020
…Out of respect for the hard work of the other queens, VH1 will air the season as planned.
Sherry will not appear in the grand finale scheduled to be filmed later this spring.” – spokesperson for VH1 and World of Wonder— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) March 6, 2020
“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 as planned. Sherry will not appear in the grand finale scheduled to be filmed later this spring.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12 star Sherry Pie has apologised after allegedly ‘catfishing’ men online in order to receive embarassing and explicit videos.
The New York performer, real name Joey Gugliemelli, was accused by five men of posing as a casting director online and encouraging them to record videos of themselves for him, Buzzfeed reports.
One of the men claims he recorded himself performing a sex act at Gugliemelli’s request.
In a Facebook post shared after the story broke on Thursday (5 March), Gugliemelli – who’s set to make his onscreen debut this week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race – said he was “embarassed and disgusted” with himself and revealed he was “receiving treatment” to address his issues.
“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”, he wrote.
“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.”
The 28-year-old added: “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.”