RuPaul’s Drag Race Australia is one of the most hotly anticipated reality shows of 2020, and now one top US star has publicly put his band up for the hosting role.
Season eight winner Bob the Drag Queen – real name Christopher Caldwell – says he wants to steer the show, and that’s elicited a controversial reaction from Aussie drag legend Courtney Act.
WATCH: RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is proving a hit with Aussie viewers
‘Just putting this out there. I’m available to host or judge Drag Race Australia,’ wrote Bob on Twitter.
Courtney responded in typically edgy style, by joking, ‘Bloody immigrants coming and trying to take jobs from the locals! Crikey!’
If Courtney is secretly being genuinely protective of the gig underneath that satirical response, she may be in for disappointment. Sources say it may in fact be another graduate from the same season, Bianca Del Rio, who gets cast – she has already proved a huge success with Aussie audiences after four sell-out tours.
While RuPaul and offsider Michelle Visage trekked to the UK to host the British version of the show, which is already proving a sensation on Stan, it is believed that no such arrangement has yet been locked in for the Aussie version.
While some see Courtney as a sure thing for the role of host, one insider says her rough histories with both RuPaul and Visage make that ‘highly problematic’, and also ‘pretty damned unlikely’.
Ru and Courtney famously fell out over the US host’s past negative comments – since retracted and apologised for – on the issue of whether transgender contestants should appear on a show about drag and gender illusion.
‘Ru as a cis man having conversations about, and rule over, women’s bodies is alarmingly in line with the current swing of conservative politics,’ said Courtney at the time.
An incensed RuPaul allegedly blocked Courtney on Twitter after the spat, but denied any feud.
However Courtney’s catalogue of sometimes brutally honest comments about the star and show could make it very difficult to get cast on Drag Race again.
Courtney – real name Shane Jenek – told JOY FM’s Word For Word host Benjamin Norris that she was not friends with RuPaul – who is famed for not getting close to any contestants during filming.
‘RuPaul is there in the room, what you see on TV is all of what you get, there is not anything beyond that,’ Courtney said.
When asked of the lack of friendship, ‘Does that make you not like him?’, Courtney responded, ‘I’ve chosen to focus on that legend of RuPaul, just like with everyone there is the legend and there is the human.’
With no network yet publicly locked in for the Aussie version of the show, it might be some time yet before we hear who is hosting. But we can’t wait to find out!
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