Whoopi Goldberg is not happy about her employer ABC’s decision to cast convicted con artist Anna Delvey on the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars.
“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,” Goldberg said on The View Thursday after a clip played of Delvey joking about dressing up her ankle monitor and stating she wasn’t nervous to appear on the show since they can’t “arrest me for not dancing well.”
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Goldberg added, “This—woman, [ICE] gave her permission to go do this. Now, should I think there’s a reason? Is there a two-tiered system with ICE?” It seems likely that ABC, which produces both DWTS and The View, helped Delvey obtain the permission and paperwork necessary to leave her house arrest and appear on the show.
Delvey was arrested in 2017 and accused of defrauding institutions out of more than $250,000 to fund her luxurious lifestyle as she pretended to be the daughter of a German oil businessman. She was convicted of a slew of charges in 2019, including grand larceny and theft—after which she was sentenced to four to 12 years behind bars.
Since she was released from prison in February 2021, Delvey has been under house arrest from her home in New York. Her story gained further notoriety when it was retold on the popular Netflix show Inventing Anna.
“I don’t understand why she gets to stay [in the country],” Goldberg added. “I’m listening to people b--ch about what's going on at the border and all these people who shouldn’t be here—well, what the hell, man?”
“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,” Sunny Hostin added. “So she committed another crime. And what is the consequence of it? A bejeweled ankle monitor and a spot on a television show.” She added, “When are there consequences for people’s actions?”
The news of Delvey’s appearance came late last week, and her promo photo for the show, which featured her wearing her now infamous court-ordered ankle monitor, was released earlier this week and generated plenty of buzz. Though skeptical, host Alyssa Farah Griffin noted that she will still be watching the show.
“I’m not convinced that this person has” taken accountability for her actions such as other famous wrongdoers like Gypsy Rose Blanchard, for example, said Griffin. “Con artists tend to remain con artists so I would just say if you’re around her there, I would be wary about schemes she might be running.”
Other stars Delvey will dance alongside include Tori Spelling, former NBA player Dwight Howard, Family Matters dad Reginald VelJohnson, and Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik.
