RuPaul’s Drag Race finalist Asia O’Hara has apologised profusely to fans and animal lovers, after a lip-sync stunt involving live butterflies went badly wrong during the show’s Season 10 grand finale yesterday.
In an apparent attempt to outdo last year’s winner Sasha Velour, who yanked off her wig to send rose petals flying, Asia strategically hid butterflies in various parts of her outfit, with a view to setting them free during the performance.
Needless to say, the plan backfired. After the first lot of butterflies refused to come out of her wrist-cuff, the audience watched in slack-jawed horror as the remaining insects either clung to her outfit or fell to the stage, in immediate danger of being squashed.
Monique Heart‘s face here pretty much says it all:
Asia O’Hara, your butterfly lip sync wasn’t very….fly. I’m sorry my dear, but you are up for elimination. pic.twitter.com/uwwEh47NBI
— Chris Ryan (@ChrisRyanOnline) June 29, 2018
As lip syncs go, this was one of the more memorable ones, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Ru quickly sent Asia packing, advancing her rival Kameron Michaels to the next round, but the internet proceeded to have a field day with the butterfly-based mishap.
After the Drag Race finale, Asia herself took to social media to apologise for the stunt, saying that she is “sad and heartbroken” by the way her performance turned out, and pledging to volunteer 100 hours of service to the ASPCA.
— Asia O’Hara (@AsiaOharaLand) June 29, 2018
She wrote:
“Despite months of research and rehearsing with a professional company, what I hoped would be an amazing and safe display of optimism, and a surprise for everyone including production and the network, it did not go as planned. I would like to publicly offer the entire world my deepest apology. It’s important that everyone knows I would never purposely hurt any living being and have the utmost respect for all animals.”
In a subsequent interview with Entertainment Weekly, O’Hara explained the situation further, saying:
“I, of course, rehearsed it at home several times and it worked, but [the finale was] a different place and a different environment, and I don’t think the contraptions were warm enough to wake the butterflies up. But, as they warmed up in the stage lights during the break, they started to fly away!”
PETA condemned the stunt in a statement today, saying:
“When performers use live animals as props, nobody wins. Asia O’Hara has apologized for this misguided stunt, and PETA hopes the sad spectacle will sway the show to adopt a policy that bans all live animals and stops lip syncs from being literally killer.”
Young New York queen Aquaria took out the Season 10 crown, beating out Kameron Michaels and Eureka O’Hara in the final lip sync.
If you are still thirsting for more Drag Race, then you’re in luck, as Stan recently announced that they will be soon streaming Season 1 of the show.
Otherwise known as the “lost season”, it remained out of circulation for years thanks to its notoriously shaky production values and low-budget look.
All that said, Season 1 introduced the world to some iconic queens like Tammie Brown and Bebe Zahara Benet, and you’ll now be able to watch it from July 27.
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