She’s got the gall, but does she have the moves?
We’ll soon find out when con woman Anna Delvey — who served nearly four years in prison for posing as a German heiress to scam hotels, socialites and banks out of $250,000 — takes a shot at the Mirrorball Trophy.
It was announced Wednesday that she is joining the new season of “Dancing with the Stars,” alongside retired NFL receiver Danny Amendola, Olympians Ilona Maher and Stephen Nedoroscik and a few reality stars looking to stay relevant.
Disney-owned ABC’s press release shamelessly sanitized Delvey’s resume, calling her “an artist, fashion icon and infamous NYC socialite who gained international attention after Netflix purchased the rights to her story and developed it into the 2022 miniseries ‘Inventing Anna.’”
The show’s Wikipedia page, however, was more accurate in its description: “convicted fraudster.”
The official announcement featured Delvey, née Anna Sorokin, in a glitzy,thigh-baring golden dress that showed off her most important accessory: her ankle bracelet.
That is her schtick, after all. The wink, the nod. She’s still a bad girl — locked down by ICE — on house arrest, only now a judge has expanded her “home” range by nearly 3,000 miles.
Delvey is what you’d call an aspirational convict, one who proves that crime does pay. She has spun her criminal notoriety into a career as a downtown It girl with fashion connections and fawning press.
Under house arrest since 2022 and evidently still facing the threat of deportation, the Russian-born Delvey has thrown star-studded dinner parties at her East Village apartment, sold her artwork and started a podcast. During next week’s New York Fashion Week, she’s scheduled to walk the SHAO runway.
She is the resident “deception analyst” for USA’s show “The Anonymous” — a reality competition show where people lie to each other.
God bless America.
In 2022, Netflix released the Shonda Rhimes-created miniseries “Inventing Anna,” based on a sensational New York Magazine article. Delvey was played by Emmy winner Julia Garner as enigmatic yet brilliant, a Robin Hood of sorts. Her victims, meanwhile, were made to seem likegreedy, shallow social climbers getting their comeuppance. (The money she earned from the show went to restitution.)
“I’m trying to not glamorize my crimes and not lead anybody to believe that’s the way to get famous,” she told Jake Tapper in 2022.
And yet, she’s made her illegal actions her entire identity, flashing that ankle bracelet like it’s a rare piece from Cartier.
Back in 2019, Delvey was jailed for her white-collar crimes and released in early 2021 for good behavior. She was then detained by ICE for overstaying her visa in the US, and released on bail to house arrest. She could still be booted from the country, but why let a little thing like immigration rules spoil her shot at the American dream?
Heck, I know people who can’t visit the US because they overstayed their visa, and they didn’t swindle anyone.
But Delvey was given a Social Security number and allowed to post on social media, where she flaunts portraits of her slimmed-down self for her one million followers.
There is a part of me that admires the shameless hustle. A small part of me.
But after breaking the law, why is Delvey still here on American soil — taking jobs from other craven influencers desperate for the hit of fame that comes from doing the tango on network TV?
“I feel like I deserve a second chance, it was my mistake that I made and I served my time and I feel like I should deserve a second opportunity,” she has said.
Meanwhile, she’s free to tap dance all over our legal system.
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