Drag Race fans, get ready to clutch those pearls.
Noted drag queen Willam Belli has spilled a shocking account of his ongoing friction with former boss and fellow drag icon, RuPaul. It happened on the podcast David’s Out For A Good Time when Willam sat down with co-hosts David and Nadeli to talk about his career, and the talk inevitably turned to his work on Drag Race.
“The thing about the show is it’s mostly drag queens now,” Willam says, insinuating a drop in quality on the show. “RuPaul doesn’t even look at people. She doesn’t critique anyone anymore. It’s all the judges. She says ‘Do you think this?’ She asks the question, gets the judges to answer – there’s no blood on her hands anymore.”
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Belli then went on to reveal a recent altercation with RuPaul on the streets of Los Angeles. “I’ve had some really bad interactions with RuPaul which have tainted it for me…We don’t interact much, although I did yell at her in the street last week.” From there, things get nasty:
“We have a mutual friend. Well, he’s my friend. I don’t know that he’s her friend anymore. He is not well right now. He’s been asking to see her and she hasn’t gone to see him. She took care of him for years. He’s one of those people that, um, has flown very high and he’s had his problems. He hasn’t been a saint. They had a bad experience on set together and he was removed from the show.”
“I basically said to her ‘go visit Matthew.’ She backed up her car, and she said ‘How f*cking dare you.’ Then I said: ‘You know what? I saw him yesterday, bought him a milkshake.’ She said: ‘You are some f*cking trip.’ I said: ‘I know he wasn’t an angel’…I can say it, I don’t give a f*ck. ‘I know that you’re paying for him now,’ because she’s paying for the care, World of Wonder’s taking care of him. ‘But he’d actually like see you, show some face.’ She said ‘F*ck you.’ I said “F*ck you too b*tch.’ And I had flowers in my hand…so I got to flip her off with flowers. Because, you know what, no one else calls her on her bullsh*t.”
Belli then went on to deride RuPaul and World of Wonder for hoarding money and not paying Drag Race contestants. He noted that for many of the contestants, Drag Race will be the biggest moment of their career and criticized RuPaul for not showing contestants proper respect. “They’re not evil, I’m not saying that, but they’ve done some sh*t f*ckin’ things. And no one calls them on it.” Belli added the caveat that Drag Race has done wonderful things for the LGBTQ community, and “more good than bad.”
RuPaul has yet to respond to Belli’s remarks.
uberhund
Okay, so let’s get this right. Rupaul took care of this guy in the past, and she’s paying for his care now. However, for reasons of her own, she doesn’t want to see him. That seems to me to be quite saintly – she’s behaving incredibly decently towards her ex-friend, given that there is obviously bad blood between them. Now I don’t know why Ru and Matthew fell out, obviously, but it seems to me that Willam expects Rupaul to be an utter saint – care for the guy, pay for the guy AND visit the guy when she clearly doesn’t like him anymore. I mean, fair enough that Willam passes on the message that Matthew wants to see her, but he knows she doesn’t want to, and anyone who intervenes between friends with history like that can expect to get caught in the crossfire!
tham
Yeah totally.
I mean come on. It sounds like Ru is totally being a stand up person. Minus playing golf with him, Ru is pretty close to Tom Hanks level…
Polaro
Bingo! My thoughts exactly.
Roan
My guess is this refers to Mathu Andersen, RuPaul’s former creative collaborator and makeup artist.
Brian
Exactly my thoughts too
QueerTruth
Of course I don’t know the background story… but I don’t have to to see that Willam is an obnoxious, toxic ungrateful mess. BYE. You haven’t been relevant for years… and when you were- well that’s because of RU.
Craig
Willam hasn’t been relevant for years? He was literally just in A Star Is Born…
Patsy Stoned 75
Willam may be toxic & ungrateful, but Pearl is sweet. She says Ru is a fake, mean bitch.
Annaronimo
They’re all human beings like the rest of us, with good and bad qualities, strengths and flaws. Take everyone with a grain of salt and try to find the midpoint of the topic. Sounds like there’s bad blood between Ru and Matthew, but Ru is paying for his medical costs. Willam seems to feel Matthew deserves a visit to heal the rift but Ru doesn’t want to. Willam has a sardonic mode of address, Ru tends to get heated very quickly on certain topics. Pearl is very young and, reading some of her comments, it’s apparent that her viewpoint isn’t very objective yet. It’s all just the public facades of human beings, and that’s just a small piece of who they are. There’s enough drag queens who speak well of Ru to suggest that there’s more to it than her just being mean or fake.
QueerTruth
Pearl was wrong to come after Ru… 4 years later mind you. What was Pearl’s big story- nothing. I read it. One sentence that could be taken many ways. It’s a TV show. Get a grip. I’ve been following Ru since I was a kid in the 90s. So that’s 20 plus years of receipts and Ru has done more for the LGBT and drag than all of the contestants put together.
And that’s the T
corestrength
You don’t get to be megasuccessful like Ru without developing some hard edges. It comes with the territory.
She is not required to be “nice” or “approachable” to every single person who wants something from her.
Personally, I think that level of fame would be hellish.
Annaronimo
You also don’t get to that level of success as a black drag queen in America when you started where she did without being tough as hell, resilient, smart and adaptive. You don’t have the relationship he and his husband have, or he and Michelle clearly evidence in their chats on their podcast, without having a good side to you. If he were as evil as some people are claiming, why would he pay for Mathu’s medical care even while there’s bad blood between them?
Lacuevaman
so so very tired of drag queens
Geeker
Willam is a mess and a jerk but RuPaul’s constant attempts to come off as kind and sweet when everyone knows he’s really neither are just annoying.
Annaronimo
Incorrect. They’re both human beings with all the range of moods and qualities and flaws that entails.
ElPillo
Why some drag queens and non-DQ can be so spiteful?
yaletownman
I know this is off topic but I finally watched the third season of the ‘Eastsiders’. I was amazed at William’s acting ability and not just his ability to ‘perform’ in drag but his performance out of drag which was intimate and moving. I became a fan on a whole new level after I watched the episode that focused on his character and boyfriend vacationing in Palm Springs.
GREATGLORYHOLER
There is Good and Bad in Everyone. Yes, William might seem to be a mess but his business sense is Top Notch. His Go-Go Boy business is Huge and To be honest his acting career was well known before he was on Drag Race. As far as RuPaul. It is well known for several years that there is an On Camera Ru and an Off Camera Ru. I can understand why Pearl was upset. Who wants to be told that ” Your Compliments Mean Nothing Unless A Camera is Rolling” Rupaul could have just said ” Thank You Very Much ” and Glad You Are Here, On The Show ” But I was not there and it is just my Opinion
hemlock138
I think his name is spelled Willam.