The hosts of The view are not happy about Anna Delvey’s participation in the upcoming season of ABC’s Dancing with the stars.
Delvey (real name Anna Sorokin) is a convicted fraudster and fake German heiress who allegedly tricked various Manhattan elites into giving her hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, goods and services. The story was covered in Jessica Pressler’s new York Magazine article and then dramatized for Netflix’s The invention of Annain which Julia Garner played the role of Delvey and Shonda Rhimes served as showrunner.
Delvey was released from prison in 2021 after serving four years, but has been under house arrest since then while she fights her deportation case. When asked what prompted her to take part in ABC’s reality dance competition, Delvey admitted that she had received permission from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I was somehow persuaded to do it. I got permission from ICE and then it was somehow too late to back out,” she said The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday after the cast was announced on Good morning, America. Delvey will also wear an ankle bracelet during the competition.
During the broadcast on Thursday of The viewwhich also airs on ABC, host Whoopi Goldberg shared her thoughts on the casting choices and Delvey’s comment about getting approval.
“I think back to all the families whose family members were arrested by ICE, who went to court to get their father, their brother, their mother back, and this woman got her permission to do that,” Goldberg said. “Now, should I think there’s a reason? Is there a two-tier system here at ICE?”
Co-host Sunny Hostin also chimed in: “She scammed so many people and then spent about two years in prison and then had to spend another 18 months in prison for overstaying her permit and visa. So she committed another crime. And what is, I don’t know, the consequence of that? A jeweled ankle bracelet and an appearance on a television show.”
“I like it when someone stands up, but when do people’s actions have consequences?” Hostin asked.
Joy Behar suggested to ABC that they create a spin-off series called Dancing with the serious criminals.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin also noted that while she was in favor of a make-up story, she would only do so if the person admitted to wrongdoing and owned up to everything, which Delvey apparently did not: “She still owes people money. Scammers tend to be scammers.”
When Behar noted that Delvey gets to stay on the show because she’s “pretty,” Goldberg argued, “Well, that’s a little sour. And you know, I like pretty people, too. But I have to say, I listen to people complaining about what’s happening at the border, and I listen to people complaining about all these people who shouldn’t be there — so, what the hell, man?”
Goldberg also said that Delvey’s casting was a “(fuck you) to the many people who have tried to come back to this country and whose families have been torn apart.”
DWTS returns Tuesday, September 17 on ABC and Disney+ and is available to stream on Hulu the next day.
