"Rupaul’s Drag Race is back and better than ever--or is it? The new season of the show started off great on February 28th, but is Sherry Pie’s secret catfishing going to ruin it all?" --Lola Christ, 6th Grade
Joey Gugliemelli, also known as Sherry Pie was accused by a man named Ben Shimkush on March 4th of this year claiming he was a catfish, he said Sherry Pie had been contacting him as a casting director named; “Allison Mosie.”
According to a 27-year-old man who told Buzzfeed News he would like to remain anonymous the persona had been trying to cast people for rules including, A Nightmare Before Christmas musical and Bulk, a show about a man that was getting bigger by taking steroids. He had also shared emails between him and Allison Mosie that went on from 2016-2017, which proved his statements. The same man had ordered a bus ticket to New York to meet with Allison and never ended up seeing her, he told Buzzfeed News, “Her persona decided to rip me off.”
The original accuser told Buzzfeed another man getting cast for the same role in a Nightmare Before Christmas referred him to Allison, and that was how he originally got in contact with her but the role he was getting considered for was in Bulk. Just as the 27-year-old had described Ben had been emailed questions about how it would feel to be the man in the show (Jeff was the name of the character). He said he was eventually asked to record videos for casting which he did end up doing, it was all extremely sexualized and the actors both felt uncomfortable about it.
“I don’t know who these videos were sent to and I didn’t know what they were objectively for,” Ben told Buzzfeed News. “I felt awful. I felt like I had been completely taken advantage of.”
The people Gugliemelli had reached out to were people he’d known in the past, sometimes even first reaching out to them through his Facebook or other social media platforms referring them to this casting director named Allison--who of course, turned out to be him as well. The total number of people coming forward about their involvement with Sherry Pie referring them to this woman was five. Although Ben states a total of six people have cooperated similar stories to him.
Finally, on March 5th Gugliemelli released a statement. It read, "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 I've caused will never go away and I know that I did was wrong and truly cruel." He goes on to state how he has changed since being on Rupaul's Drag Race and how he learned how important loving yourself truly was.
After Sherry's apology Rupaul's Drag Race official twitter account announced she had been disqualified from the show and would not be appearing in the finally set to be filmed later that season.
She had been officially disqualified before the first episode had aired. The show’s episodes were all filmed in 2019 when there had been no statements on Gugliemelli’s cat fishing, therefore it would’ve been impossible to completely get Sherry Pie out of the show fully without completely reshooting the season; but they have attempted to edit her out as best as possible. Mentioned in their statement, however, VH1 has still decided to air the season as planned.
They also made an announcement regarding Sherry Pie’s win in episode three during the first improv challenge. VH1 matched the prize money earned and donated it to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization focused on suicide prevention among the LGBTQ+ community. After the official announcement of Sherry Pie's disqualification former contestants took to social media in response.
Former contestants Bob the drag queen who won season eight and Farrah Moan who placed eighth in season 9 were upset with Sherry Pie’s behavior and took to twitter. First Bob spoke on it by tweeting; “Disqualify her.” But a clearly angry Farrah responded to the thread with; “ARREST her.” And continued in another tweet; “When some1 uses there influence & power to sexually prey on people, they need that influence & power removed. PERIOD.”
The tweet goes on to talk about the allegations. Another former contestant of season nine Pandora's Box spoke up, “This whole thing is diabolical and the story keeps growing. I just don’t understand the need to go this far with lies. This is predatory behavior. They [Rupaul's Drag Race] made the right call.” Many more queens from previous seasons commented on it such as Phi Phi O'Hara, Detox, Trinity The Tuck, Sharon Needles, Chad Michaels, Gia Gunn, Aquaria and many, many, more.
Most if not all former contestants that have spoken up have taken the victims side.
The show has continued as planned and most likely will be hard to watch despite how much Sherry pie is edited out. Though she will not win the damage is already done.
According to a 27-year-old man who told Buzzfeed News he would like to remain anonymous the persona had been trying to cast people for rules including, A Nightmare Before Christmas musical and Bulk, a show about a man that was getting bigger by taking steroids. He had also shared emails between him and Allison Mosie that went on from 2016-2017, which proved his statements. The same man had ordered a bus ticket to New York to meet with Allison and never ended up seeing her, he told Buzzfeed News, “Her persona decided to rip me off.”
The original accuser told Buzzfeed another man getting cast for the same role in a Nightmare Before Christmas referred him to Allison, and that was how he originally got in contact with her but the role he was getting considered for was in Bulk. Just as the 27-year-old had described Ben had been emailed questions about how it would feel to be the man in the show (Jeff was the name of the character). He said he was eventually asked to record videos for casting which he did end up doing, it was all extremely sexualized and the actors both felt uncomfortable about it.
“I don’t know who these videos were sent to and I didn’t know what they were objectively for,” Ben told Buzzfeed News. “I felt awful. I felt like I had been completely taken advantage of.”
The people Gugliemelli had reached out to were people he’d known in the past, sometimes even first reaching out to them through his Facebook or other social media platforms referring them to this casting director named Allison--who of course, turned out to be him as well. The total number of people coming forward about their involvement with Sherry Pie referring them to this woman was five. Although Ben states a total of six people have cooperated similar stories to him.
Finally, on March 5th Gugliemelli released a statement. It read, "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 I've caused will never go away and I know that I did was wrong and truly cruel." He goes on to state how he has changed since being on Rupaul's Drag Race and how he learned how important loving yourself truly was.
After Sherry's apology Rupaul's Drag Race official twitter account announced she had been disqualified from the show and would not be appearing in the finally set to be filmed later that season.
She had been officially disqualified before the first episode had aired. The show’s episodes were all filmed in 2019 when there had been no statements on Gugliemelli’s cat fishing, therefore it would’ve been impossible to completely get Sherry Pie out of the show fully without completely reshooting the season; but they have attempted to edit her out as best as possible. Mentioned in their statement, however, VH1 has still decided to air the season as planned.
They also made an announcement regarding Sherry Pie’s win in episode three during the first improv challenge. VH1 matched the prize money earned and donated it to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization focused on suicide prevention among the LGBTQ+ community. After the official announcement of Sherry Pie's disqualification former contestants took to social media in response.
Former contestants Bob the drag queen who won season eight and Farrah Moan who placed eighth in season 9 were upset with Sherry Pie’s behavior and took to twitter. First Bob spoke on it by tweeting; “Disqualify her.” But a clearly angry Farrah responded to the thread with; “ARREST her.” And continued in another tweet; “When some1 uses there influence & power to sexually prey on people, they need that influence & power removed. PERIOD.”
The tweet goes on to talk about the allegations. Another former contestant of season nine Pandora's Box spoke up, “This whole thing is diabolical and the story keeps growing. I just don’t understand the need to go this far with lies. This is predatory behavior. They [Rupaul's Drag Race] made the right call.” Many more queens from previous seasons commented on it such as Phi Phi O'Hara, Detox, Trinity The Tuck, Sharon Needles, Chad Michaels, Gia Gunn, Aquaria and many, many, more.
Most if not all former contestants that have spoken up have taken the victims side.
The show has continued as planned and most likely will be hard to watch despite how much Sherry pie is edited out. Though she will not win the damage is already done.
