Whoopi Goldberg Slams ‘DWTS’ Casting Of Con Artist Anna Delvey

UPDATE, with video: Seems safe to say that Whoopi Goldberg and her fellow panelists on ABC’s The View won’t be rooting for Dancing With The Stars‘ contestant and fake heiress Anna Delvey this season.

On today’s episode of the daytime talk show, Goldberg, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin took issue with the convicted con artist’s participation on the upcoming season of the dance competition (also an ABC show).

Watch the segment below.

After showing a brief clip of Delvey and her pro partner Ezra Sosa joshing about bejeweling the ankle monitor that Delvey is required to wear – she has said that she has permission from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to appear on DWTS – a stern Goldberg said, “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, and this woman, they gave her permission to go do this?” Goldberg added, “Is there a two-tiered system with ICE?”

Delvey was convicted in 2019 by a New York state court of larceny and other crimes after she pretended to be a German heiress and swindled thousands of dollars from various people and establishments. After serving two years in prison, she was released on parole only to be taken into custody by ICE for overstaying her VISA. She appealed, and last year she was ordered to wear an ankle monitor while in home confinement at her Manhattan apartment.

In the clip with Sosa, Delvey said about the competition, “What’s the worst that can happen? They’re going to arrest me for dancing badly?”

Said Hostin today, “If you think about it, 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, overstaying her VISA. So she committed another crime, and what is the consequence of it? A bejeweled ankle monitor and a spot on a television show.”

Hostin likened Delvey’s DWTS casting to Gypsy-Rose Blanchard becoming a reality TV star following her release from prison on second-degree murder charges in the death of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard.

Griffin took issue with the comparison.

“I’m here for a redemption arc, not a rehabilitation arc,” Griffin said, saying that Blanchard, like Martha Stewart before her, took responsibility before returning to the public eye. “Gypsy-Rose did the time,” she said, adding that Delvey “still owes people money.”

“Con artists tend to remain con artists,” Griffin said, advising DWTS castmates “be wary.”

When Joy Behar quipped that Delvey seems to be getting her second chance “because she’s pretty,” Goldberg said, “Well, that’s a little bit of a piss-off. I like pretty people too, but I gotta say I listen to people bitch about what’s going on at the border and I’m listening to people who bitch about all these people who shouldn’t be here? Well, what the hell man? How does this work?”

“We gotta support the network,” Goldberg said. “I get all that, but this is an ugh in the face of people who are trying to make their way back.”

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