The hosts of The View are not pleased with Anna Delvey joining this upcoming season of ABC‘s Dancing with the Stars.
Delvey (whose real name is Anna Sorokin), is recognized as the convicted fraudster and fake German heiress who reportedly conned various elites in Manhattan into giving her hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, goods and services. The story was reported on in Jessica Pressler’s New York magazine article and then dramatized for Netflix’s Inventing Anna, which starred Julia Garner as Delvey and had Shonda Rhimes as its showrunner.
Delvey was released from prison in 2021 after serving four years but has since been on house arrest while fighting her deportation case. When asked what prompted her to join ABC‘s reality dancing competition, Delvey admitted she was granted permission from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I kind of got talked into doing this. I got the permission from ICE and then it was kind of too late to back out,” she told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday after the cast was revealed on Good Morning America. Delvey will also wear an ankle monitor while competing.
During Thursday’s broadcast of The View, which also airs on ABC, host Whoopi Goldberg expressed her opinions on the casting choice and Delvey’s comment about getting permission.
“I think back to all the families who’ve had family members arrested by ICE, 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,” Goldberg said. “Now, should I think there’s a reason? Is there a two-tiered system here with ICE?”
Co-host Sunny Hostin also chimed in: “She defrauded so many people and then spent about two years in prison and then had to spend another 18 months in prison for overstaying her welcome and overstaying her visa. So she committed another crime. And what is, I don’t know, the consequence of it? A bejeweled ankle monitor and a spot on a television show.”
“I like a come-up, but when are there consequences to people’s actions?” Hostin asked.
Joy Behar suggested ABC release a spinoff series called Dancing with the Felons.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin also noted that she’s while she’s in favor of a redemption story, it’s only if the person has admitted wrongdoing and owned up to everything, which Delvey seemingly hasn’t: “She still owes people money. Con artists tend to remain con artists.”
When Behar noted that Delvey gets to remain in the show because “she’s pretty,” Goldberg argued, “Well, that’s a little bit of a piss-off. And, you know, I like pretty people too. But I’ve got to say, I’m listening to people bitch about what’s going on at the border, and I listen to people bitch about all these people who shouldn’t be — well, what the hell, man?”
Goldberg also suggested casting Delvey is a “[fuck 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.”
DWTS returns Tuesday, Sept. 17, on ABC and Disney+ and is available to stream the next day on Hulu.
