'Drag Race' Star Sherry Pie Apologizes After Being Accused of Catfishing by Five Actors

RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Sherry Pie, whose real name is Joey Gugliemelli, has been accused of posing as a casting director to have actors send him videos of themselves performing sexual acts as audition tapes.

Buzzfeed reports that Gugliemelli allegedly posed as a “casting director” named Allison Mossie and told the young actors that she was casting a supposed upcoming play called Bulk.

The victims include two actors who Gugliemelli worked with during a production of The Little Mermaid in Nebraska, as well as students at SUNY Cortland in New York. The actors in Nebraska were allegedly told the Bulk was a project that HBO was interested in.

Gugliemelli reportedly helped one of the young actors, Josh Lillyman, film his audition tapes, including a masturbation scene that he suggested. He said, “I did everything he asked me to because at that point he had built up so much detail for the show that I was truly convinced it was real and associated with HBO. It took a lot for me to break that delusion. I was willingly doing all the things he was asking me to.”

After Buzzfeed posted the article with the allegations, Gugliemelli took to Facebook to apologize.

“This is Joey, I want to start by saying how sorry I am that I caused such trauma and pain and how horribly embarrassed and disgusted I am with myself,” he said in the statement. “I know that the pain and hurt that I have caused will never go away and I know that what I did was wrong and truly cruel. Until being on RuPaul’s Drag Race, I never really understood how much my mental health and taking care of things meant. I learned on that show how important “loving yourself” is and I don’t think I have ever loved myself. I have been seeking help and receiving treatment since coming back to NYC. I truly apologize to everyone I have hurt with my actions. I also want to say how sorry I am to my sisters of season 12 and honestly the whole network and production company. All I can do is change the behavior and that starts with me and doing that work.”