Ericka Toure Aviance, a NYC drag queen and long-time fan of Wendy, showed up for a taping of the queen's talk show on Wednesday wearing daytime drag (not what she's sporting in the above photo), but the producers weren't feeling it, singled her out, told her her 'costume' was too over-the-top and warned her that if she attempts to appear on camera, she will be 86ed from the building.
Now, like Norma Gay, she's mad as hell and is going national with her story. Ericka tells the Advocate:
“I decided to get dressed for Wendy because I thought she’d appreciate it,” says Aviance, a fixture of New York City nightlife for the last decade. “It wasn’t anything outlandish: It was a black baby-doll dress, heels, tights, and standard makeup -- not even anything sparkly. It was very demure, especially for me.”
"'While standing in line outside the studio Wednesday morning, the group was approached by a female intern who noted the fact that Aviance was a drag queen. “She took my name down, so we thought we were about to get VIP treatment,” Aviance recalls. “After another hour we got to the door, and there’s this little white man standing there giving us the eyeball. He gets in our way to prevent us from going in, and he says, ‘You’re in violation of our no-costumes dress code. We usually don’t do this, but we know you’ve been waiting out there for a while, so we’re going to let you in. But you can’t appear on camera, and if you get up for Hot Topics or try to ask Wendy a question, you’ll be removed from the building.’
“I said, ‘This is not a costume.’ And he said, ‘Well, it’s a costume to us.’ When Jonny asked him the reason behind the policy, he said, ‘We don’t want the show to turn into Let’s Make a Deal, where everyone comes in crazy costumes.’ I was like, ‘So you’re comparing me to a man in a gorilla suit?’"
"“It’s not like I was wearing a big purple wig,” Aviance continues. “I was wearing a ponytail piece and a bang piece. It was much less hair than Wendy was wearing and, p.s., much less hair than any of the other black women in the audience. There were big blond bouffants, lots of church makeup, party dresses, blue mohawks -- and I’m made to feel like some sort of clown? No, it definitely wasn’t about what I was wearing. It was because I was a man in a dress. For someone who appropriates so much gay culture, you’d think Wendy’s policies would be a little more celebratory of the community.”
'[Jonny McGovern, star of Logo’s The Big Gay Sketch Show who was with Ericka] adds, 'It was shady. We all thought Wendy would get a kick out of it.” He immediately complained about the incident on his Facebook page.
'Aviance claims that, once seated, another staffer approached them to rearrange the seating so that Aviance was moved away from the aisle and against the perimeter of the seating area. In the row ahead, a short woman and a tall man were then asked to switch seats so that the tall man blocked Aviance.'"
"When asked for comment, Wendy's production company said, via, a statement:
“Producers at The Wendy Williams Show never intended to offend Ericka Toure Aviance, but the fact of the matter is that the show does request that audience members dress appropriately, not in costume-like attire. We certainly support the LGBTQ community and believe that personal style is a form of self-expression, as evidenced by our host Wendy Williams each and every day. But in this case, our staff was concerned that Ericka Toure’s attire was over-the-top and would be distracting to fans at home.”
Now that's some straight up bullshit right there. I could have sworn there were two black girls who were models/fashion designers who got up during HotTopics a few weeks ago looking like Hello Kitty and Rainbow Brite threw up all over them. Wendy got a kick out of their outfits, but why didn't the producers get on them? If this is true Wendy, and I am a big fan of Johnny McGovern (who I did see in your audience a few weeks ago) and Erika's, so if your people are throwing shade at the gays (who is about 85% of your audience, you may want to look back into getting your radio job, because with the power of the rainbow coalition, your talk show may not last too long. Now in Wendy's defense, people who aren't familiar with television has to learn that even though she is executive producer of her show, The Wendy Williams show is a new program and right now the powers that be are only thinking about politics and numbers. After all, her show is on FOX. She may have control of her show, but Wendy doesn't have 100% control. I really don't believe this is all Wendy's fault (if not at all), so I would say cut her some slack. Execs are all abunch of tight-wad nervous pansies who are always worrying about the top dollar. I'm sure once her show is truly established, Wendy will have all the outrageous guests gabbing it up on Hot Topics.
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