Ben De La Creme - Not Going Home

Caricature of RuPaul's Drag Race contestant, Ben De La Crème. 


"Hi everybody! It's me! Ben De La Crème! Dela for short, Deh for shorter, Miss Crème if you're nasty," exclaimed an exuberant Dela as she burst into the workroom on day one. A dead-ringer for Michelle Visage, Dela's polished retro look and charming larger than life character stood out right away, and after handily winning the first runway challenge by hot gluing together a fierce couture gown based on Golden Girls materials, it was clear that this queen would be sticking around awhile. Proving she's no slouch when it comes to acting, Dela was safe for the Scream Queens challenge, in the top 3 for the Rusical challenge, and she surprised everyone (including herself) by snatching a Snatch Game win with her comedic portrayal of Maggie Smith. Dela was at the top of her Drag Race race game, and by her Snatch Game win she was the first queen of the season to win two challenges. Confirming with the other queens that this was true, Dela was challenged by Darienne Lake, who, as part of the second group of queens to enter the competition claimed that Dela's first win "didn't count because she wasn't there." Considering Darienne was lip-syncing her first week, it's odd that she felt slighted by Dela's comment, but she was, and she got it into her head like a mantra that Ben De La Crème was full of herself--and needed to be sent home.

This conflict with Darienne soon became a recurring problem for Dela. She felt slighted when Darienne didn't choose her for her Rap Queens team and was shut down when she questioned Darienne about it. The following week the two were paired up together to sell RuPaul cosmetics in a commercial. Though it seemed there was tension in the workroom, Dela and Darienne both did a spot-on job of portraying the cooky age-obsessed cougar that also may or may not be on drugs by channeling their inner Jennifers (Tilly/Coolidge respectively), but unfortunately these characters weren't exactly what Ru had in mind for representing her makeup and the two found themselves lip-syncing for their lives against each other. It was a tense moment when Darienne was declared the winner of the lip-sync. How could Dela be going home now when she had done so well up to this point...?

...Well, it would seem Ru felt the same way, as she asked that Dela stay and the Race continued with no one being eliminated that round, which thrilled fellow contestant, Courtney Act, who expressed publicly that had Dela been sent home she would have screamed, "NOOOO! YOU MADE THE WRONG DECISION!!!" Of course Darienne was standing right there, and of course this did not improve her opinion of Dela...

...and of course this wasn't reeeeeeallly a surprise to anyone paying attention to the "Untucked" previews that had shown Dela exclaim "I'm not going home!" week after week in a costume we had not yet seen...

So all of the show's conflict remained intact and the two seemed evenly matched when a comedy challenge came their way the following week. Darienne shined, but Dela, surprisingly, was heckled off the stage. It was odd to watch someone so good at acting and comedic timing rush through what could have been a funny routine. Dela was in the bottom, but was spared from lip-syncing due to another surprisingly unimpressive act from the bubbly Joslyn Fox, who sent home Laganja Estranja with a well-timed jump into the splits. Nobody talks about it, but Dela got her second "save" from Ru on this one. Dela would have been slaughtered by Laganja's dance moves if she'd faced her instead of Joslyn, let's be honest.

That being said, with the Comedy Challenge behind her, Dela seemed to find her stride again by placing in the top the next two rounds, excelling at both the Talk Show challenge and the makeover challenge, and her rightful place in the top echelon of contestants seemed re-secured. That's why the Glitter Ball episode was so bizarre. Dela (or Bendela as she is being called occasionally by now) continued her high mark streak by beginning that episode with a mini-challenge win with a spot-on #everybodylovespuppets read of Bianca Del Rio. I don't honestly recall anything being so far off in her 3 runway looks that she deserved to be in the bottom, but there she was again, again against Darienne Lake, who again was declared the winner of the lip-sync. Unfortunately for Ben/Dela/Bendela however, only Darienne was asked to stay this time, and Miss Crème had the last word by writing a "long, pointless message" that filled the entire workroom mirror with lipstick--a mirror that Darienne (or "Darian" as she spelled it on the mirror) had the responsibility of cleaning.

Ultimately, it's doubtful that the "feud" between Darienne and Dela has continued beyond the Race, but I decided it would be more fun to exaggerate it by having Dela seek out revenge via the scary fly she, herself dressed as in one jungle-themed runway. It seemed fitting since she just missed the Music Video episode of RuPaul's 'Sissy That Walk' (noteable lyrics: "fly, fly, fly, fly; uh oh, uh-uh-oh.").

*In the time since I created the Joslyn Fox piece, outrage over Dela's "early" elimination from the Race prompted a call to action via "Miss Congeniality" vote, and has likely surpassed Joslyn for that title. Again, this basically boils down to an All Stars slot, so likely one of these two lovable queens will be returning at some point...