Every fall, when ABC announces the new Dancing with the Stars cast, there’s bound to be someone fans object to. They seem to love choosing controversial competitors who might rub people the wrong way. Season 33 is no exception. On the September 5 episode of ABC’s The View, hosts criticized the casting of Anna Delvey.
From 2013 to 2017, Anna (real name Anna Sorokin) posed as a wealthy heiress to access upper-class New York art and social circles. During that time, she defrauded financial institutions, banks, hotels, and individuals out of $275,000.
The View hosts questioned her casting, citing her criminal record and ongoing deportation case. Anna even had to get permission from the U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for permission to compete on the show.
Is ICE playing favorites?
Anna’s terms of release from prison require her to remain in 24-hour home confinement with electronic monitoring and no access to social media. She’s supposed to be confined to her 470-square-foot apartment in Manhattan. How is she allowed to fly to California and compete on a TV reality show?
“I think back to all the families who’ve had family members arrested by ICE,” Whoopi Goldberg said, “who have gone to the courts to get their dad or their brother or their mother back. And this woman, they gave her permission to go do this? … Is there a two-tiered system here with ICE?”
Whoopi’s co-host, Sunny Hostin, agreed with her. “She defrauded so many people and then spent about two years in prison,” she said. “And then [she] had to spend another 18 months in prison for overstaying … her visa. So, she committed another crime. What is … the consequence of it? A bejeweled ankle monitor and a spot on a television show?”
Joy Behar jokingly suggested that ABC should launch a spinoff series called Dancing with the Felons. She also theorized that Anna gets special treatment because “she’s pretty.”
“You know, I like pretty people too,” Whoopi responded. “But I’ve got to say, I’m listening to people bitch about what’s going on at the border … Well, what the hell, man?”
Whoopi labeled Anna’s casting as a “f*ck you in the face of a lot of people who have been trying to make their way back to this country and families torn apart.”
Anna Delvey is still on parole
Convicted in 2019 of grand larceny, larceny in the second degree, and theft of services, Anna was sentenced to 12 years in prison but was released on parole in 2021. ICE took custody of her not long afterward for “overstaying her visa.” Nicknamed the “Fake Heiress,” ICE released her from custody and placed her on house arrest in October 2022.
Partnered on the show by newly-promoted DWTS pro dancer Ezra Sosa, Anna has limited familiarity with the show, having only seen it while in prison.
Dancing with the Stars Season 33 premieres September 17 at 8/7c on ABC and Disney+.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ANNA’S CASTING ON DWTS? DO YOU THINK SHE’LL LAST VERY LONG IN THE COMPETITION?
