RuPaul's Drag Race "Season 12" (partially found unreleased Sherry Pie footage of reality competition TV series; 2020)

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This article has been tagged as NSFW and NSFL due to its discussion of sexual misconduct.
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Rupauls drag race logo.jpeg

The show's logo.

Status: Partially Found

RuPaul's Drag Race is an American reality competition television series, first in the Drag Race Franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV. RuPaul plays the role of host, mentor, and head judge for this series, as contestants are given different challenges each week. RuPaul's Drag Race employs a panel of judges, including RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and a host of other guest judges, who critique contestants' progress throughout the competition.

Controversy

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 12 aired from February 28th to May 29th, 2020, featuring 13 contestants vying for the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar" on VH1. However, the season was marred by controversy when contestant Sherry Pie, real name Joey Gugliemelli, was disqualified in Episode 12. This followed with allegations that Gugliemelli had posed as a casting director named "Allison Mossie," duping young gay men into sending inappropriate audition tapes in exchange for "roles" that ended up being false.

On March 4th, 2020, 25-year-old actor Ben Shimkus made a post on Facebook detailing his experiences being sexually coerced by Sherry Pie, real name Joey Gugliemelli, a drag queen competing on Season 12 of RuPaul's Drag Race.[1][2] After Shimkus' post multiple other victims came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Gugliemelli.[3] On March 6th, 2020, Gugliemelli admitted to sexual misconduct in a Facebook post made to the official Sherry Pie account:

"This is Joey. 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, stating that his actions were due to mental health issues. "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. Until being on RuPaul’s Drag Race, I never really understood how much my mental health and taking care of things meant,” he added, saying he was getting mental health treatment. "I learned on that show how important ‘loving yourself’ is and I don’t think I have ever loved myself. I have been seeking help and receiving treatment since coming back to NYC. I truly apologize to everyone I have hurt with my actions."[4]

On the same day VH1 released a statement announcing that Sherry Pie had been disqualified and would not be appearing at the season finale scheduled to be filmed in spring 2020.[5][6] VH1 also announced that the rest of Season 12 would air as planned out of respect for the work of the other competing queens.

Footage

VH1 made the decision to air Season 12 as planned, though with significant changes to the general edit and narrative focus of the season. It is commonly known that a large story line throughout the season was planned to center around a fued between Sherry Pie and fellow contestant Gigi Goode. This was entirely scrapped. Additionally, footage of Sherry Pie was removed from most episodes following her disqualification; her confessionals, Frozen runway, and the #TeamSherry segment at the end of episode 12 did not air, and the majority of the original edited version of the season has yet to be released or shown to the public in any official capacity. Other supplementary material, such as Sherry's episodes of "Whatcha Packin'" and "RuVealing the Look," were never uploaded to the RuPaul's Drag Race YouTube channel, and remain unreleased.

The first episode of season 12 aired February 28th, 2020, so this particular episode was unaffected by the coming controversy and maintains its original edited format. Buzzfeed printed the article detailing the allegations of several men against Gugliemilli on the same day the second episode of the season aired, March 6th, 2020. This was also the day Gugliemilli admited his guilt through an apology on Facebook. With the exception of the new disclaimer airing at the top of every episode explaining his disqualification, this episode as well was unaffected and maintains it's originally edited format due to the episode being part two of a split-premiere, in which Sherry's appearance took place during the first half.

At this time WOW Presents Plus began to take action and started crafting a new edited story, omitting as much of Sherry as they could without losing story continuity. The third episode aired the following week on VH1 with a new edit. Though there was a new edit, and the majority of streaming services around the world were able to do what they needed to do to get the re-edited episode on their services, noteably a couple of services, for one reason or another, did not replace the original version of episode three. Due to this different people were seeing slightly different content and through internet discussion came to the conclusion that some services, like Netflix UK and Canadian service Crave, at least briefly, did not replace the original edited episode. Because of this, and thanks to the quick work of some preservationists, we can say that the original edit of episodes 1 through 3 are not lost media. From hereon out the season was aired/streamed with the newly edited season, and it is from here that this becomes lost media.

Gallery

Images

Footage

Reupload of Meet the Queen: Sherry Pie.

The Season 12 RuVealed Runaway Walk with footage of Sherry Pie (starts at 8:27).

See Also

References