‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Recap: Waiter, This Sherry Pie Is Rotten
Sherry Pie has been disqualified, but the show's already filmed and edited, casting a large shadow on an otherwise bright season.
RuPaul’s Drag Race has a problem, and its name is Sherry Pie. A few days before the second episode dropped, sexual assault allegations surfaced online regarding the show’s latest old-school comedy queen.
— Content warning: this article discusses sexual assault —
Over multiple years, Sherry — aka Joey Gugliemelli — has repeatedly cat-fished male friends and acquaintances in various acting communities, giving them the email of a fake New York theatre representative who would, in time, encourage the actors to send various audition videos with sexual content. These videos ranged from actors pretending to get turned on from the smell of their own armpits to one individual masturbating on camera.
And as more and more people stepped forward with similar stories — at time time of writing, at least eight men — it shifted from Reddit and Twitter fodder into a full story broken by BuzzFeed News.
Sherry responded in a Facebook status apologising for causing “such trauma and pain” while not directly referencing the allegations, writing that she knows the pain of her victims “will never go away, and I know that what I did was wrong and truly cruel”.
She said she had been in ‘treatment’ since taping S12: “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.”
It’s a tactless use of the show’s rhetoric of self-love, framing the realisation she shouldn’t assault people as yet another breakthrough moment facilitated by therapist RuPaul. Several screenshots online suggest Sherry had been using the same cat-fishing ruse online as recently as last September — aka after S12 finished filming.
drag race producers trying to change the show after giving sherry pie a good edit pic.twitter.com/qI9Hwj0i1y
— spencer (@dua__loopa) March 7, 2020
The show, to its credit, has disqualified Sherry, and announced she will not feature in the live finale. They’ve also removed her pictures from the show’s Instagram and all mention of her at Drag Con, and deleted her Meet The Queen video on YouTube, effectively severing ties.
But, as judging by the second part of S12’s premiere, Sherry is likely a main character of the season, acting as the episode’s main narrator, congenial queen, and campy star.
It puts a shadow over a bright season, and it’s easy to imagine producers frantically re-storyboarding the season and attempting to edit Sherry out as much as they can from coming episodes. It’s a costly, difficult thing to do, and the show might severely suffer from a rushed edit — we might get more WigGates to fill in time, for example.
Or the show does nothing, and keeps it as is, which is probably more ill-advised. It was really hard watching Sherry succeed and dominate this episode’s screen-time, and it’s not as though Drag Race’s audience won’t be aware of the scandal.
Half of Drag Race‘s fun is the conversations around it (hi!) and following along online. If anything, the way the allegations were swiftly handled is a testament to that online community, and the way alumni like Aquaria and Kim Chi publicly denounced Sherry.
An apology should not include lies, to say the least. @sherrypienyc you are walking on very thin ice. Choose your words wisely because my community is not the one to fuck with.
— Aquaria (@aquariaofficial) March 6, 2020
Rumours are swirling about Brita, too, with an allegation of sexual assault emerging around the same time as Sherry’s. It’s a real shame, especially given I doubt the show will do address it.
Where Sherry’s allegations were multiple and so particular that they felt immediately verified before she admitted to them, the allegation against Brita is a little less easy for the Drag Race machine to act on. Unfortunately, its one person’s word against, well, Brita’s. She has strongly denied the claims.
We even seen how this plays out on Drag Race. Around the airing of episode three of S11, Silky Nutmeg Ganache was accused of sexual assault, to which absolutely nothing happened. It’s a reminder that Drag Race‘s actions here, while right, are ultimately in self-interest: RuPaul loves brand management, and he and Viacom know sexual assault isn’t cute.
Allegations of assault and abuse in queer communities face their own distinct difficulties — one where language of self-betterment, healing and community are co-opted as a shield, as Sherry did in her status.
How this episode felt.
So many times this episode, it was incredibly uncomfortable to watch Sherry play the congenial role by gassing up other queens. While people contain multitudes (as to say, her actions here weren’t malevolent of themselves), it’s alarming to see someone we know has repeatedly abused vulnerable, trusting people say the ‘right’ things and act the ‘right’ way.
This episode’s edit makes it clear Sherry makes it pretty far on the show, and regardless of how the show handles it with or without a re-edit, hopefully the viewers don’t hound her week in, week out. As Yvie Oddly pointed out on Twitter, the best thing to do is to let Sherry “fade into nothing on her own” rather than provoking her into a dangerous headspace.
We all know what WILL happen someday to some unfortunate queen if we as role models are telling people it’s okay to perpetuate hatred-fueled witch-hunts. That, too, is an abuse of power that must be checked.
Forget 🍒 🥧 and let her fade into nothing on her own.— Yvie Oddly (@OddlyYvie) March 6, 2020
The most respectful thing she can do is deal with her issues in private, and step back to allow her victims to heal, as difficult as it’ll already be having her on the world’s biggest queer show.
For that reason, as the season goes on I’ll try and avoid writing too much about Sherry. This show spotlights queer artists doing wonderful things, and I see no productive reason to focus away from that: while the show can’t completely edit her out, I can.
Speaking of, this was a really great episode, and the five other queens we met were all interesting, talented performers, with S12’s cast coming out of the premiere looking super strong. At the risk of sounding too much like RuPaul, lets focus on the flame rather than the flicker.
Just Jan (& Jaida & Rock & Aiden & Dahlia, In That Order)
Drag Race definitely packed its biggest names into episode one, but two of these queens — Sherry, Jan — were some of the season’s most-hyped acts.
And doesn’t Jan know it, too. She came into this episode with a mission to the point that the judges commented on her ambition, as if it wasn’t the most Ru-ruthless-Paul thing about her.
Eye on the prize (other eye on Seleennnaaar)
Jan absolutely should’ve been top two this episode alongside Jaida Essence Hall, but the show’s already editing in a storyline about her doing too much instead of letting her natural talent shine through. Jan says she’s Drag Race‘s biggest fan, and unlike Sasha Belle, may have actually cracked the code.
Then again, studying too-hard might hurt her chances later on, as she’s already getting a real All Stars edit. I hope to be proven wrong, because I fell in love with her off the bat — reference Fergie singing the National Anthem, and you’ve won my heart forever.
With just six queens on this episode, we get to know each one of them really well, but none more than Rock M. Sakura, an Anime-inspired queen from San Francisco who admits they have absolutely no Japanese heritage. Rock M.’s cartoonish aesthetic and larger-than-life tulle runway were read a little bit by Michelle, whose opinion I am finding more and more irrelevant. To quote RuPaul, ‘bring back my Merle!’.
Sure, we’ll stop and stair.
In-between this week’s runway-repeat mini-challenge and Bob Fosse number, Rock M. farts a lot and talks about her mother’s meth addiction. It comes out of nowhere on the show, and watching her tears fall out of control in both the werkroom and the confessional is incredibly upsetting: I hope discussing it in public was helpful for her, as it’s clearly a super raw topic.
Pictured: Left, What I think I look like when [redacted] at 5am on a Sunday listening to my new friend talk about their worst break-up ever and also, somehow, their relationship to their father; Right, what I actually look like (right).
Sorry to Nicky Doll, but the true Parisian queen has arrived, fresh off a solidarity strike with workers across the country. Bonjour, elle is trés chic, non? Vive la revolution, Macron = merde!
This brings us to Dahlia and Aiden, who in the words of Mariah Paris Balenciaga, both received entertaining edits. While Dahlia was painted as Aja’s vain, trash-talking drag daughter, she’s clearly just a little intimidated by the show.
Aiden, who seemingly doesn’t perform, is equally scared of the show and nervous, but the judges love her perfectly fine Fosse verse and runway looks. Sasha Velour and Sharon Needles be damned, but I’m cautious of anyone who self-identifies as weird or different, though I do recognise the show probably demands she call herself “psychotic” as a sound-byte.
Kim Chi, in a salient mirroring of this Sherry Pie reaction.
I was shocked the judges liked this. It is exactly the sort of shit I wore in 2010 as a 17-year-old who had just discovered The XX and Florence + The Machine.
Why did Dahlia’s look just yell at me about why Doja Cat is the future of pop music?
In order to be fair to both sets of girls, PT. 2 of the premiere repeats the first episode’s mini and maxi challenge, albeit with a Fosse musical twist for the latter. I’ll take the maxi as an excuse to remind you of the perfect SNL video: the time ‘Liza Minelli’ tried to turn off a lamp.
The girls also have to write a verse introducing themselves and choreograph a number, and let’s put it this way, no one is going to be singing this song in a week. ‘I’m That Bitch’ was much grabbier — wow, queers these days loving trap and hating musical.
Still, they all did a pretty great job on-stage, surprisingly after that terrible rehearsal. Seemingly, they were given off-camera time to get it right.
When someone asks you what your favourite RuPaul song is.
My personal highlight was Jan’s homage to Natalie Portman in Black Swan, as a queen driven to the edge by her own ambition:
“I was perfect.”
All the tulle looks were excellent, though a special shout out must be made to Rock M., whose look was a homage to the Nancy Drew of drag, Shangela, who uncovered the tulle underneath Raja’s Hair Ball cotton-candy creation.
“I only used hair.”
It was truly Rigga Morris that she wasn’t top two — the tulle/tool look was incredibly clever-dumb, which is exactly what you want from a drag queen. But we needed Sherry in the top, and she and Jaida lip-sync to Robyn’s ‘Call Your Girlfriend’.
Find you someone who looks at you like Robyn looks at drag queens lip-syncing to her music.
After Jaida wins, the queens return to the werkroom to meet the other seven. Drama! Next week, the queens compete in an American Idol-esque skit challenge, and Sherry Pie is replaced by a floating orb as a last-minute attempt to edit her from the show.
I know the Drag Race production can't recut the episodes at this point, but VH1/World of Wonder should do to Sherry Pie what Square Enix was forced to do to Pooh in Kingdom Hearts 3 in China. pic.twitter.com/zxFd7sEv58
— Tyler Dinucci (@TylerDinucci) March 6, 2020
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12 streams on Stan, with new episodes available 3pm AEDT each Saturday.
Jared Richards is Junkee’s Night Editor, and a freelance writer. Follow him on Twitter — he knows a nice place on the beach, they do really nice food, it’ll be cute, come through.