People Aren’t Happy With Chloe Fineman’s Camp Counselor Story

Saturday Night Live’s top impressionist has gotten herself into a bit of trouble, and it’s not for being a scientologist. (Which she totally is, by the way.) It began with a March 31 Vanity Fair interview headlined “SNL Cast Test How Well They Know Each Other,” starring Chloe Fineman and fellow castmates Mikey Day, Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla, Jane Wickline, and James Austin Johnson. In the supposed-to-be-lighthearted interview, the SNL star casually reveals that she was fired from her camp counselor job when she was 16 because she pantsed a 6-year-old boy.

Based on her castmates’ faces, they definitely did not know that.

In the clip, Chloe explains the behavior by saying the boy “would lift [her] shirt all the time,” and that “it was a different time.” (Was it?) She continued, “He would be like, ‘Hey, could I have a hug? And I’d go to hug him and he’d lift my shirt, like a dick. And then I was like, I’m going to get back at you.” And so she did. But at what cost? 

This clip alone was enough to get the internet up in arms, but things took a turn when commenters realized that the version of the story we were seeing on Vanity Fair’s YouTube was actually heavily edited.

@hotchismedaily did they think we wouldn’t notice #vanityfair #chloefineman #disturbing #edit #fyp ♬ original sound – hotchismedaily

In the original clip, Chloe goes into further description of the incident, saying the boy “wasn’t wearing underpants,” and that “a giant school bus” went by, and his “little ding-a-ling” was out. As you can imagine, a clip of a rich celebrity joking about menacing a 6-year-old has not been well received. However, she added that she was eventually hired back. 

It’s unclear if VF edited the interview in response to online backlash, a publicist’s request, or just plain good sense (though if they had that, why include the story at all?) But I think Ashley Padilla spoke for all of us when she said, “Oh, honey, I think you’re on a list somewhere.” 

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