Con artist Anna Delvey being on reality TV shows Strictly Come Dancing line-up isn't that bad but raises a difficult question
As reality TV fans await the start of Strictly Come Dancing in the UK, over in the US people are reacting with shock to one of the contestants who will be taking part in the American version of the show, Dancing With The Stars - con artist Anna Delvey.
Delvey, whose real name is actually Anna Sorokin, is a 33-year-old faudster who posed as a wealthy German heiress to gain access to upper-class New York.
She’s become infamous for her crimes, which took place between 2013 and 2017, and her life story inspired the Netflix series Inventing Anna. She also continues to use her fake name Delvey, and has one million followers on Instagram under the handle @theannadelvey.
In the recently released promo shots for the show, Sorokin - which is what I will call her for the rest of this article because that is her actual name - is seen in a beautiful glittery dress, just like her fellow competitors, but she also has an accessory her fellow contestants won’t have - an ankle monitor. She has reportedly worn the ankle monitor since 2022 when she started her house arrest.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but judging by the reaction this one has provoked it’s worth much more than that. People on social media, as you would expect haven’t been shy about sharing their disgust at her signing to the show.
One person said: “Glorifying a convict. How embarrassing.” “We are glamorizing being a criminal now,” a second person stated. Another said: “This is the beginning of the end for Dancing With The Stars. To those she defrauded and stole money from I can’t help but feel how they must be looking at this and wondering, where are morals.”
Indeed, what a very good question. Where are the morals? This woman is not a celebrity, she’s a criminal. I understand the fascination with her story - I sat and binge-watched Inventing Anna myself - but she shouldn’t be given fame for what she did. Never mind signing her up for their reality TV show, the people behind this show need a reality check.
Sorokin also appears to be making quips about her criminal status, almost as if she’s enjoying her infamy. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the show's launch, she said she had to get permission to travel out of state to film the show, and said she would be "bejewelling" her ankle tag.
When asked if she had any nerves ahead of the show, she said: "What's the worst that can happen? They can't arrest me for dancing badly." What a terrible thing to say, almost making light of her crimes.
My colleague Marina Licht recently wrote about her disappointment with the line-up for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing in the UK, writing “the ‘celebrity’ contestants unveiled for Strictly Come Dancing 2024 are far from A-list” - but surely this shows the casting choices actually aren’t that bad?
Sorokin would tell people she had a $60m (£46m) trust fund and an ambitious project to create an eponymous arts foundation. In reality, she was a recent magazine intern who came from an ordinary family of Russian immigrants living in Germany.
By staying in expensive hotels and presenting a glamourous lifestyle on Instagram, she managed to trick others into believing she was a socialite who could open doors for them, and so they picked up her bills. Her story first came to international attention in 2018 after a New York Magazine writer Jessica Pressler wrote a feature about her.
The fraudster was found guilty in 2019 of theft of services and grand larceny, having scammed more than $200,000 (£145,000) from banks and luxury hotels. She was released from prison in 2021 for good behaviour, after serving almost four years.
One has to question how much Sorokin is being paid for this TV appearance - and whether or not she deserves it. I do not know the sum, but I don’t believe she deserves any money at all. She doesn’t deserve the air time either.
The money she is paid should be given to her victims, and/or given to charity. Apparently, Sorokin was paid $320,000 (£230,000) by Netflix for Inventing Anna, but she was not able to keep all the money, owing to a New York law that prevents criminals from profiting from their notoriety. Let’s hope that the same law prevents her from keeping all of the money she earns for Dancing With The Stars. That’s not to say that she doesn’t deserve to be able to move on with her life now that she has served her jail time, she does. But, if she had any dignity or respect for her victims she’d do it quietly.
The uncomfortable truth is that Sorokin now has what she always wanted; money and fame. It seems as though she’s being rewarded for committing crime and that just doesn’t sit right with me. If this is a sign that the words criminal and celebrity are becoming synonymous then that is deeply troubling, to say that least.