Disqualified Drag Race queen Sherry Pie has been performing shows throughout 2020
Sherry Pie, the disgraced RuPaul's Drag Race season 12 queen who was disqualified from the competition following multiple instances of catfishing, has been performing shows in the town of Beacon, N.Y., as recently as November 2020, EW has exclusively confirmed.
Following tips from multiple sources close to the situation, EW reached out to Pie — whose real name is Joey Gugliemelli — to confirm allegations that he had performed in drag following his disqualification from Drag Race in March of last year, despite previously going on the record to deny that he had performed in drag throughout 2020.
"It's just a space I performed at twice. There was no money or anything like that. It was very limited, testing out material that I'd been working on," Gugliemelli says of a pair of shows that occurred throughout the year, which he estimates were attended by approximately 15 people per set. "It was very few people.... it's a space that I know the person who owns it personally. It's not like a venue."
The confirmation comes one day after the drag artist appeared on The Tamron Hall Show to address his behavior. In response to allegations against him and the discussion on The Tamron Hall Show, EW requested comment from Gugliemelli regarding any performances he might've done in 2020. He denied doing so.
"I wouldn't come back right now," he said. "I didn't do any [shows] in 2020."
He continued: "I wasn't talking to anybody about doing anything in New York or doing anything anywhere. There were people asking the people who were representing me at the time if I was still performing and they'd check in with me and I'd tell them how I was feeling and where I was at. I really was out. I really was not in it."
In the months following production on season 12 in mid 2019, multiple people (including some longtime friends of Gugliemelli) accused the performer of posing as a female casting director named Allison Mossie, who was supposedly casting for roles in productions that ultimately did not exist. Victims said they submitted degrading and often sexually explicit "audition" tapes to Mossie through Gugliemelli. One victim said he was also paid to take steroids to bulk up for a fake role.
Days after season 12 premiered on VH1, several accusers came forward with their stories about Gugliemelli, who eventually apologized in a lengthy Facebook post, though he was ultimately disqualified from the ongoing Drag Race competition (the network and production company World of Wonder would later donate to LGBTQ charities in response to the scandal) despite completing the initial round of filming as a top-four finalist.
"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," Gugliemelli's apology read at the time. "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."
A larger EW story containing victims' responses to The Tamron Hall Show interview will be published soon.
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