Pearl Claims She Was Banned from RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars in Retribution for Interview Comments
EntertainmentTVLast week, season seven Drag Race runner-up Pearl unintentionally stirred a few pots when she confided to Hey Qween that RuPaul had told her “nothing you say matters unless that camera is rolling.” Pearl now claims that the comments spun off into “incredibly overly dramatized and exaggerated” headlines saying that she’d “dragged” RuPaul, exposing Mama Ru as an elitist who doesn’t care about the up-and-coming queens, when her intent was simply to explain why she’d been aloof on the show. Pearl did use the phrase “so Hollywood, rotted, and gross” (see the clip here):
We were filming a segment, just kind of chatting, bantering together. Then the camera went down for a moment, and I turned to RuPaul and said, ‘Oh my god, I just wanna say thank you so much, like, it’s such an honor to be here, such a pleasure to meet you,’ just giving her everything I ever wanted to say. She turned to me and said, ‘Nothing you say matters unless that camera is rolling.’ That broke my spirit, and that is the reason why I had one foot in, one foot out the entire time I was on that show. Maybe that was me being petty, maybe that was me thinking it should’ve been something I never should’ve expected it to be, but in that moment it was so heartbreaking because I idolized her, I worshipped her, and I felt like it was so disrespectful…so Hollywood, rotted, and gross. How could you say that to someone who’s just obsessed with you?
The story went viral, and INTO got comment from other contestants Gia Gunn, The Vixen, and Laganja Estranja who seconded Pearl’s experience, saying they were told to “save it for the cameras,” though Laganja Estranja interpreted it more as “teaching the girls the ways of Hollywood.” When you’re squeezing an entire spin-off series purely out of off-stage banter, you really do have to get every second on camera.