A contestant has been disqualified from Season 12 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” after multiple men came forward this week to accuse him of posing as a casting director to record them in compromising situations, TheWrap has learned.
“In light of recent developments and Sherry Pie’s statement, Sherry Pie has been disqualified from RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a spokesperson for VH1 and World of Wonder said in a statement Friday. “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.”
The decision comes a day after five men told Buzzfeed that Joey Gugliemelli, who goes by Sherry Pie on the show, had tricked them into recording “embarrassing audition tapes of themselves saying and doing degrading things” by posing as a casting director named Allison Mossie. One of the men said Gugliemelli coerced him into masturbating on camera as part of the supposed audition process.
Gugliemelli appeared to have admitted to the behavior in an apologetic statement posted to Facebook on Thursday.
“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.”
The post continued, “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.”
Gugliemelli is one of 13 performers featured on the 12th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which began airing on VH1 last week. The premiere introduced half of the season’s contestants, with six more — including Sherry Pie — to be introduced in episode 2, which airs tonight.