DJ Pierce, who performs as the drag queen Shangela on HBO's acclaimed series 'We're Here,' denies a production assistant's rape allegations.
The HBO Max reality series “We’re Here” stars three well-known drag queens — former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestants Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela — as they traverse small-town America and recruit locals to participate in one-night-only drag shows.
Through his lawyer, Pierce declined to answer questions but issued a statement strongly denying the accusations. McGarrigle felt sick on the ride to the hotel and vomited in the toilet upon arrival to Pierce’s hotel room, the suit says. McGarrigle did not immediately report the sexual assault to authorities or to Buckingham Television because he feared losing his job, says the suit, which listed his duties as including “serving as an assistant and driver for Pierce.”
McGarrigle’s brother, Ryan, worked as a production assistant on “We’re Here” for Season 1. McGarrigle eventually told his brother about the alleged rape after Ryan became Shangela’s wrangler in Season 2, Ryan said. The brothers had been sharing a hotel room before the cast and crew party, and Ryan told The Times that his brother returned to the room the following morning looking as though he had been crying.
McGarrigle said he hoped that Ingram and Warren would replace Pierce with a different star for the show’s third season. When that didn’t happen, McGarrigle wrote to Ingram on Instagram in February 2022. The Times reviewed what McGarrigle said were screenshots of his Instagram messages to Ingram. Nonetheless, McGarrigle said watching Shangela being celebrated as a queer icon was so upsetting that he felt compelled to speak out. By late 2022, Shangela was making news as a popular contestant on Season 31 of “Dancing With the Stars.” She made history as the first drag queen to compete in the U.S. iteration of the show, finishing fourth. In December, the Daily Beast ran a story headlined, “Shangela Is the Fearless Drag Queen America Needs Right Now.
After McGarrigle shared his allegations with “We’re Here” co-creators Ingram and Warren in September 2021, McGarrigle said, the production companies Industrial Media and IPC , which made “We’re Here” in conjunction with HBO, opened an investigation. McGarrigle said that an investigator contacted him, but that he felt uncomfortable with the questions, as if he were being “grilled” and the investigation was “more self-serving ... than to help me.
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