Whoopi Goldberg Slams 'Dancing With the Stars' for Casting Convicted Felon Anna Delvey: 'She Still Owes People Money'
Sept. 5 2024, Published 3:07 p.m. ET
Whoopi Goldberg might not be tuning into Dancing With the Stars this season as she doesn't understand why the ABC series cast convicted felon Anna Delvey in the first place.
“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. This woman, they gave her permission to go do this,” Goldberg said on the Thursday, September 5, episode of The View, before asking, “Now, should I think there’s a reason, is there a two-tiered system here with ICE?”
Co-host Sunny Hostin added, “If you think about it, [Delvey] 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 the, I don’t know, consequence of it? A bejeweled ankle monitor, a federal bejeweled ankle monitor and a spot on a television show.”
Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, used her social status to defraud wealthy people, banks and hotels. She was arrested in 2017 and convicted of grand larceny in the first, second and third degree as well as theft of services in 2019.
She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, but she was able to leave early in February 2021 due to good behavior. After she was released, she was taken into custody by ICE for violating the terms of her visa. Since then, she's been living under house arrest in New York City while fighting for her deportation case.
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While the case is being reviewed, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement permitted her to compete in the show.
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Still, Goldberg was annoyed at the casting choice.
"She still owes people money. I don’t understand why she gets to stay!" Goldberg exclaimed.
"You know, I like pretty people too, but I gotta say, I’m listening to people b----- about what’s going on at the border and I’m listening to people b-------- about who shouldn’t be here — well what the h---, man? How does this work?" she continued, referring to immigration issues. "This is a [f--- 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."