This year, Anna Sorokin (previously known as Anna Delvey) was announced as a cast member on the 33rd season of Dancing with the Stars. This announcement came as a surprise to many people as Delvey had been arrested in 2019 for several felony charges including for larceny and theft.
Upon her arrest in 2019, Sorokin was sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the New York City elite. Sorokin posed as an heiress to an oil baron, falsified records, and lied to banks to make her way to the top of the social ladder.
In October 2022, Sorokin was switched to home confinement as she fought deportation. However, felony charges and house arrest did not stop Sorokin from rising to fame across social media.
Sorokin used her appearance on this show to her advantage. On Sept. 17, 2024, Sorokin premiered on Dancing with the Stars wearing a sparkly ankle monitor, as she is still on house arrest. However, despite being arrested, Sorokin is not new to being idolized for her crimes.
In 2022, Netflix premiered an original TV show, Inventing Anna, based on the real-life story of how Anna Sorokin got away with her crimes. This television series had been planned by Netflix since the arrest of Sorokin, showing just how quick Netflix is to profit off shocking stories like these.
This Netflix original impacted how media consumers view criminals in real life. Portraying Sorokin as a main character in a show, despite being based on real-life events, creates this somewhat fantasized identity of her. Sorokin’s crimes have become part of this alternate reality that many media consumers tend to forget had real-life impacts on people. However, this is not the first time we have seen this idolization of criminals in the media.
This past December, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison after serving seven years of her ten-year sentence. Blanchard was in jail for playing a role in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, in 2015. Dee Dee Blanchard had Munchausen By Proxy which made her fabricate the severity of her child’s sickness and eventually led to Gypsy Rose playing a part in murdering her.
Her story gained a lot of attention after Hulu aired their original show based on the event, The Act, based on the event, which aired in 2019. When shows like this one air, the line between crime and entertainment becomes blurred. When these people are at the forefront of a show, the audience becomes attached to them, creating a skewed perception of who they really are.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s fame soared after this show aired and it did not stop growing when she was released from prison in 2023. Upon her release, Gypsy Rose was flooded with followers, comments, likes and sponsorships. Although it is important for her to share her story for others to hear, her fame has gotten to a point where people are turning her situation into something for recreation. She has become a meme despite her tragic situation. People have turned her fame into infatuation, and adoration, which can have unforeseen consequences.
Although Gypsy Rose Blanchard, Anna Sorokin, and all the other criminals who have been the main focus of similar television shows, deserve the chance to make a new identity for themselves and assimilate into society, the line can become blurry. They should not become over-glamorized pop culture icons. This ideology can separate the crimes from the criminal, which can have impacts on the victims and the families of the victims of the crimes.
These two examples just scrape the surface of the modern media’s obsession with true crime and their willingness to profit off these tragedies as soon as they can. Although it is important for media companies to make content that appeals to their audiences, it is just as important for them to understand that these criminals are real people whose actions have real-life impacts on people. At what point will these media companies draw the line at where they choose to make their profit?