Dancing With The Felons
Money, money, money. The glamorization of what a lavish lifestyle can offer has been a carrot dangled in the faces of the general public for as long as entertainment has been portrayed on a screen. “Gossip Girl’s” Serena Vanderwoodsen’s careless party-centric escapades and Blair Waldorf’s elevated fashion sense have acted as an alluring blueprint for what type of life the teenage girl should yearn for. One admirer for this drug that is high-class society did the unthinkable, and took hold of this so-called untouchable world no matter the legal boundaries she had to cross.
This despicably fascinating individual has made her infamous debut onto the “Dancing With The Stars” stage, consequently spurring media outrage to pour in, questioning her so-called “star” status. The reality TV show providing celebrities an opportunity to reach outside of their comfort zone is PR gold and, due to the rise of social media presence, producers are gleeful as ever over soaring ratings. This past fall introduced a star-studded cast adorned with Bachelor-franchise members, Hollywood sweethearts, and an infamous individual sporting the nonconsensual accessory of a bedazzled ankle monitor.
As an iceberg of lore in human form, this heavily unsupported contestant has lived a full life, but guessing by the shiny piece of federal metal attached to her ankle, there is no doubt that abundance in what life could offer was the downfall of Anna Delvey…if that is even her real name.
Catch Her If You Can
Anna Sorokin was born to a truck driving father and a convenience store owning mother in Domodedovo, Russia in 1991. Her family relocated to Germany when Anna was just sixteen-years-old. She eventually ended up pursuing a fashion degree in Paris working as an intern for Purple Magazine, where she initially got a whiff of the luxury just out of her grasp.
Towards the end of 2013, Anna with her renewed stage name ‘Delvey’ found herself living in New York City, and with an inner need for reverence she began to allow the lies to flow off her tongue. These lies consisted of, well, everything. In her boundless imagination she built up a persona of a German heiress with a fortified trust fund across seas that offered her the overzealous lifestyle of a typical New York socialite.
Faking it till she made it was the mindset that drove Anna Delvey into countless exclusive meetings, parties, and high level industries to talk her way into New York relevancy. Bold is an understatement to describe Anna’s habits when it came to spending money that she simply did not have. Her methods of ‘payment’ consisted of meticulously crafted performances in which a purse was forgotten, a promise of repayment was made, a bank wire was on the way, her mysteriously loaded father had cut her off, her cards were broken, and countless more excuses that allowed Anna Delvey to ride the coattails of the city’s affluent population that would never have assumed a lower class individual had swept in and schooled them at their own game.
Bank Burnout
The beginning of Anna’s downfall was born the moment that she believed she could achieve her goals by blatantly trampling on the generosity of others. With an incessant fixation on fame, Anna became solely impassioned to launch “The Anna Delvey Foundation” – an exclusive club to appreciate the arts and affluency. In her dream to create this SoHo House environment, she reached for the stars without a safety net to catch the lies that eventually tripped her up. Fighting for tens of millions of dollars in loans took a valiant effort and she got alarmingly close solely on her networking and argumentation abilities. Ultimately her overdue hotel, restaurant, and vacation balances exposed the socialite for the hustler she had honed herself to be.
By manufacturing falsified proof of a sixty-million dollar family fortune, chartering a private jet for thirty-thousand dollars, and wedging her name into the minds of high rolling investors, it is no wonder that her manipulative communication skills and lack of respect for laws allowed her to swindle close to three hundred thousand dollars.
It was not until 2019 that Anna was found guilty of eight charges related to her extensive thefts while posing as the fashionista and entrepreneur that she is now labeled as on DWTS. To no one’s surprise the attitude was maintained behind bars, as Anna outright refused to appear in court in ‘prison wear,’ but rather demanded a celebrity stylist be hired for her grand ‘performance’ before the judge.
Anna was released from prison in 2021 on a basis of good behavior, although she remains liable to her debt restitution.
Several months later, Anna was detained again, this time by U.S. immigration officials for overstaying her visa, resulting in her being placed on house arrest with an ankle monitor to weigh down the crafty con artist. Presently, the Anna Delvey persona is alive and well in her stone cold facial expressions and the deafening superiority complex dripping from her tone, as if she too has lost track of her true self in the allure of the fiction she has worked so hard to create.
May of 2018 marked the release of Jessica Pressler’s published piece in the New York Magazine, detailing the devious inner details of Anna Sorokin’s luxurious fabrications. Tensions soared due to a competing Vanity Fair article, giving a first hand account from Rachel Williams, a friend or should I say beneficiary of Anna’s escapades. To Pressler’s sigh of relief, her piece garnered many more eyes due to the story being inspired from personal meetings with Anna herself while in prison.
Captivated by the article, Shonda Rhimes partnered with Netflix to release a miniseries in 2022 titled “Inventing Anna,” capturing the facade of a socialite who effectively fooled everyone, and looked good doing it. Like any ‘true’ story snatched up by the domineering streaming service, dramatizations were made as stated by each episode's disclaimer that “this story is completely true…except for all the parts that are totally made up.” The eerily similar actions to Leonardo Dicaprio’s Catch Me If You Can character stole audience attention and garnered an obsession with the story. The show’s viral status eventually landed the series an Emmy nomination for Julie Garner’s Delvey impersonation; an impersonation that had us all trying on a Russian coated German accent to obtain the powerful Delvey effect showcased within the adaptation.
As a viewer, the show does bring on a layer of anxiety and sympathy for those caught in the crossfires of Anna’s journey to fame and fortune. Anna’s image ultimately tarnished further by the exaggeration of her actions made in the writers room, which in no doubt has confused audiences on what crimes she did commit and what were simply acted out on a set.
Criminal Craze
While the Federal Justice System is vital in upholding accountability, there is a seemingly just as intimidating judge, juror, and executioner on the prowl: the media.
In the media age that uplifted Gypsy Rose to immediate celebrity status following incarceration, it is bizarre to witness the polar reception that Anna Delvey has received. Compared to the overzealous fascinations typically surrounding criminals in the spotlight, it is interesting that Anna is facing a higher level of internet backlash rather than encouragement for redemption as the media’s moral standards are being sporadically upheld. Why is the public picking and choosing which felons to hold accountable for their actions and which to pat on the back for surviving being locked up? Anna Delvey is no way, shape, or form free of criticism, and has been justly sentenced as she continues to be shackled by her past ill-advised actions, but there is a line to be drawn when it comes to online hatred entering the realm of cruelty. Following Anna’s debut dance her partner found her sobbing on the bathroom floor in response to the reception of her performance online.
Producers of “Dancing With The Stars” placed Anna Delevy on stage to captivate audience attention with the redemption arc of the century, but the majority of the public did not take the bait. Instead, fans turned ravenous toward her right to be dancing alongside stars and the bedazzled reminder of her past wrapping her ankle in a beacon of condemnation. Anna’s personal opinion on the matter stated “it was predatory of them to try (to) make me feel inadequate and stupid all while I did get progressively better yet they chose to disregard that.”
Tension simmered from dancing pros as well as several stars that clearly did not believe she behaved appropriately, especially upon her elimination exit in which she replied “nothing” when prompted with what she was going to take away from the competition. Debate surged on how to decipher her meaning and tone of the harsh parting farewell with the network. Her partner and first time pro, Ezra Sosa, has vehemently defended Anna on the grounds of the media misunderstanding her impressively maintained level of dry humor.
Anna commented on her literal meaning saying, “nothing is what I’m taking away from it. Because your advice was worthless. The advice that you gave me, it did not pay off for me, even though I tried to follow it. And this is how I felt."
Unapologetic to the very end, but the subjective matter of Anna Delvey’s redemption arc is open to interpretation. Second chances are reflective of the “giving grace” that many preach, but whether or not Anna’s emmy winning scams are forgivable continues to divide the media; one that cannot seem to agree on whether her actions reflect that of a lifelong criminal or a woman who made mistakes as a young girl while reaching for the lifestyle that many can only fantasize about. No matter the media’s declaration of Anna Delvey-Sorokin’s morality, her con artist hustle was born out of a desire for fame, and look at her now. So, who has really won here?
Written by Logan Hansen, Photography: Mary Le, Design: Megan Rush, Social Media: Juliet Ziauddin, Styling: Candace Obi, Videography: Kadilobari Lenu