After Impersonating With Malicious Intent Accusations And Admitting Fault, Sherry Takes A Pie To The Face
Wow! The devil may work hard, but RuPaul, VH1, and World of Wonder Productions work FAST! It was on Wednesday when aspiring actor, Ben Shimkus, made a Facebook post about an emotionally jarring story with Joey Gugliemelli AKA Sherry Pie, who makes her RuPaul’s Drag Race debut tonight. Despite Buzzfeed News using a megaphone, it was Instinct Magazine that first broke the news of Shimkus’ story and got exclusive quotes from him and his experience with Sherry: She allegedly catfished him a few years ago under the guise of a Casting Director and would receive sexually charged videos of him that were “auditions” for theater shows and even HBO scripted series. Shimkus feared she would eventually get on Drag Race and open her up to a new batch of prey – and just two days before she was making her premiere, he posted his story to Facebook. Shockingly, others joined in and revealed they have also been catfished by Sherry over the last few years with the exact same story, same fake-name of the Casting Director, and all were introduced to said Casting Director by Sherry. Crazy! The allegations went viral. Sherry couldn’t not address the allegations. In a public apology, she outed herself and revealed the allegations to be true. Via her Facebook, she shared:
“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.”
Like a typical narcissist, Sherry (who is 27-years-old, not 47) decided to focus on herself and seemingly was trying to save face. She took the Kevin Spacey/Bryan Singer way out and blamed not being able to love or be their authentic selves which led to years of poor behavior. Boo-Hoo! The comments on her Facebook post are not kind – with everyone calling her out for basically not apologizing and making it all about her. People were quick to remind her she was still catfishing as recent as November 2019 – while season twelve of Drag Race concluded filming in months prior. The epiphany she had wasn’t because of the show – it was because she got caught. And it’s too little, too late. Sherry Pie has been disqualified from Drag Race. The Drag Race Official Twitter made the announcement today – just hours before Sherry is due to appear on our televisions and mobile devices live in action for the first time. They mention Sherry will not be participating in the Live Finale, but are still airing episodes with her in them week to week. Check out the official tweets 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
****SPOILER ALERT WARNING****
We’re excited one person’s faults won’t harm the series or her fellow queens success, but Sherry is going to be sticking around for awhile – allegedly. Almost every spoiler website and rumor has Sherry not only placing in the top 4 – AKA one of the queens still in the running on the live finale night – but she apparently also wins a handful of challenges. As someone who is familiar with how World of Wonder works – they edit the episodes weekly and deliver them to the network a day or two prior to airing. (Trust me, I’m a credible source) It’s very likely that Sherry is going to get a huge shaft and be non-existent, but they really can’t take away wins from her and make her invisible since one would assume she does a great job competing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9RuMgTJ45h/
We should all be giving a round of applause of VH1, World of Wonder, RuPaul, and those behind the scenes who made this crucial, quick decision as it only seems right. She’s a tarnish to the brand and if they want to talk about the current White House Administration being full of tomfoolery week to week; it would’ve been a bad look for them to have Sherry running amuck – gooping and gagging and tongue popping and being the clown she is. It will be incredibly interesting to see how Sherry’s disqualification will play out in the editing – and especially at the Finale and Reunion when obviously the Queens – and RuPaul – will have to address the elephant in the room.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12 – and Sherry’s entry to cancel culture – airs tonight and every Friday throughout the Spring on VH1. Will you be watching?
Writer’s Note: This is the opinion of one Instinct Magazine contributor and does not reflect the views of Instinct Magazine itself or fellow contributors.
