Dancing with the Criminals

We’ve all seen the bedazzled ankle monitor. Anna Delvey is back in the public eye, and this time, she’s dancing. But what does that say about us?

First, who is Anna Delvey? In case you’ve missed it, Anna Delvey is a con artist whose story first became infamous in a 2018 New York Magazine article by Jessica Pressler and again in February of 2022, when Netflix released the drama Inventing Anna about her schemes. According to the article “The True Story Behind Netflix’s Inventing Anna” by Shannon Carlin, Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, siphoned more than $275,000 off of friends and financial institutions from 2013 to 2017 with the goal of funding her lavish lifestyle and starting a members-only club called the Anna Delvey Foundation. She was convicted in 2017 on three counts of grand larceny and five other charges. Since she was released from prison in 2020, Delvey has been under the custody of ICE due to her expired visa. 

The evidence was clear to the court, and the evidence is clear to us. Anna Delvey is a criminal.

And the people have spoken. Anna Delvey, alongside Tori Spelling, was the first star voted off of Dancing with the Stars. The public is unhappy with her poor dancing and attitude, as well as ABC’s decision to cast a fraud.

Delvey herself believes that her casting on the show was a publicity stunt. According to an article by Today, in an interview with NBC News, Delvey wrote, “I feel that the show so obviously used me to drive up the ratings, that they never had any plans to give me any chance to grow and only cared about exploiting me for attention.” Delvey is obviously correct, but why she would believe the production behind a hit reality television series would care about her growth is a mystery. The decision to cast Anna Delvey on Dancing with the Stars can only be described as one that hoped to garner attention through social media buzz and hate-watching. 

But is that why we should be tuning in? Why should a wildly popular television show rely on controversy and criminals to boost its ratings? The literally star-studded cast this season includes two of America’s favorite Olympians, pommel horse “Superman” Stephen Nedoroscik and rugby player and social media influencer Ilona Maher, along with many other fan favorites. Dancing with the Stars has a cult following, and the rest of the cast this season would have guaranteed viewer interest without the decision to cast someone for negative publicity. 

But why does the media put false stars like Anna Delvey on a pedestal? Why are we glamorizing crime and feeding wrongdoers’ delusions instead of putting the spotlight on stars who promote positivity? It seems that only ABC would know.