20 moments that prove Ugly Betty was ahead of its time

Wilheldiva Hater

2018 has been an amazing year for drag in the mainstream media. RuPaul’s Drag Race was just nominated for a handful of Emmy Awards and the show has had record-breaking ratings in its 10th season. The stars of the show are now going on to bigger things than ever before, thanks to a brand new audience of drag lovers. But Ugly Betty jumped on the drag queen ship years before, with a cameo from Mama Ru herself.

On the episode “Chica and the Man”, Wilhelmina is confronted by someone on the street who tells her he loves her show. She’s confused by the interaction, until Marc tells her that there’s a local drag queen who has been impersonating her under the name Wilheldiva Hater. The funniest part is that the queen was played by Vanessa Williams’ real life brother, Chris Williams.

Wilhelmina will not take mocking lightly, and threatens the queen to stop impersonating her. When she goes to the drag show to confront Wilheldiva for moving forward with her show, she mistakenly gets roped into taking the stage herself because the drag queen is stuck in traffic. She tries to get out of it, but everyone just thinks her bitchiness is part of the act.

She takes the stage to perform “Maneater” by Hall & Oates, and the crowd eats it up, and Wilhelmina lives for the attention. The next day, the real Wilheldiva arrives at the Mode offices out of drag to thank Wilhelmina for not only letting him keep doing the show, but for getting him a raise. She also agrees to give Wilheldiva a better wardrobe, because there’s no way Wilhelmina can be seen in anything cheap, even if it’s her drag impersonator.