Drag Race legend Tammie Brown spills tea on ‘getting Santino Rice fired’ and confronting RuPaul

Image of drag queens RuPaul and Tammie Brown, and on the left, fashion designer Santino Rice.

RuPaul’s Drag Race star Tammie Brown has proved once again why she will always be a legend after dishing the dirt on the “tense” moment she confronted RuPaul.

In a now famous interaction between the pair in season one’s reunion episode, Ru goads Tammie with his “inner saboteur” comment when discussing how the judges critiqued her.

“You forgot Tammie, you forgot you’re fabulous,” he says. “Don’t blame me for that, that’s your f**king responsibility.”

It’s one of the franchise’s best-ever moments, with Tammie responding with one of her endlessly quotable lines: “‘Scuse your mouth.”

The scene also gave us arguably her most memorable phrase, with the kooky queen telling Ru: “You both called me losers, and I don’t see you out there walking children in nature.”

No queen since has ever called Ru out in the same way, and for that reason, Tammie will always be famous.

Discussing the delicious drama in a new, hour-long interview, Tammie told YouTuber Drag Tea Interviews with Matt why she reacted the way she did – and why she took particular issue with fashion designer Santino Rice.

“It was a tense moment. I get upset for others, I get upset for myself. I’ll stand up for people in a group and if someone is getting bullied or whatever, it starts to irritate me,” she said.

“How can you talk to us like this? You have Santino up here saying these rude things to us. Who the hell is he anyway? In fact, we got him fired is what happened.

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“We were really talking among us, he was threatened by us, and we got him fired eventually.”

Rice joined the Drag Race judging panel when the show began in 2009, but mysteriously left the show after season six aired. While neither he nor Ru has ever mentioned publically why he left the show, some believe it was a result of fan complaints.

Rice has spent the past few years disavowing the importance of vaccinations through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continuing to explain her legendary take down of RuPaul, Tammie continued: “You’re up there, you get your makeup done for you, you have all your looks done for you, we’re here competing, you have a water hose in your face and whatnot.

“All that and to be up there sitting judging us, it’s like – really, Ru? Come on, Mama Ru. Frack ya later!”

Tammie is referring to the 2020 allegation that RuPaul allows fracking on his ranch.

“I got some old f*gs message me: ‘Oh, how dare you talk to RuPaul like that, shame on you’ – go f**k yourself. I don’t care who RuPaul is and what RuPaul’s done, you’re not gonna talk to me like that.”

This isn’t the first time Tammie has taken aim at the Drag Race stars.

When Michelle Visage took offence at Tammy explaining that she had a degree in fashion, saying that she was “being read”, Tammie replied with the absolute zinger: “You’re not being read! If I was gonna read I can talk about that line on someone’s neck.” 

Teleport us to Mars, Tammie.

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