Anna Sorokin—better known in some circles as the would-be art foundation doyenne Anna Delvey—will be a contestant on the next season of Dancing with the Stars.
The art-world fraudster previously tried to recruit investors to create an exclusive social club and exhibition space in New York City, before the entire scheme unravelled and she was found guilty of grand larceny and theft (the entire saga was the subject of the hit Netflix series Inventing Anna). For her next act, Sorokin will be paired with the dancer Ezra Sosa and competing against other celebrities of various stripes including the Beverly Hills, 90210 star Tori Spelling, the US Olympic rugby sensation Ilona Maher, the Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks and others, according to BBC News.
Sorokin has parlayed her notoriety into various ventures beyond the Netflix series—for which she was paid $320,000, though she was not allowed to keep the money due to a law in New York preventing criminals from cashing in on their infamy. Last year, while still under house arrest, Sorokin launched the podcast The Anna Delvey Show. In 2022, she joined the NFT (non-fungible token) gold rush, launching her own series of digital assets. Earlier the same year, a pop-up show of her prison drawings was staged during Frieze New York—its curator, Julia Morrison, subsequently claimed Sorokin owed her thousands of dollars she had put up to organise the show. (Sorokin’s own lawyer sued her in 2023 over around $150,000 in unpaid legal fees.)
Sorokin’s turn as a primetime dancer will likely be a major financial windfall. The starting salary for celebrity participants on Dancing with the Stars is reportedly $125,000, with various bonuses and prizes for advancing in the competition from one week to the next, according to Variety.