Vanity Fair Under Fire For Horrendous Censorship

Saturday Night Live star Chloe Fineman has been seeing a lot of flak after a segment was recorded for The Vanity Fair Game Show. This was where the cast did “SNL Cast Test How Well They Know Each Other | Vanity Fair,” the edited version was put up on the Vanity Fair YouTube Channel. 

It was ugly, but what they showed wasn’t the full story, and it calls into question the publication’s journalistic integrity.

What Did Vanity Fair Do

The first question in the segment starts out sounding simple enough: “What job was I fired from and later rehired by?” In the video they uploaded on YouTube, Vanity Fair posted an edited, cleaned-up version of what really went down. In a lackluster attempt to stop Fineman from looking terrible to the SNL audience, they edited out part of her response. But it still managed to make her look bad.

WindsorStar reported that the full set included Sarah Sherman, Jane Wickline, Ashley Padilla, James Austin Johnson, and Mikey Day. Fineman was up first and asked her castmates what job she got fired from, then rehired by? The added bonus question was why she got fired. This is where it gets ugly. In the cleaned version, Day guesses that she got fired for being racist, and Sherman thought Fineman’s attitude would be the culprit in a server position.

Padilla pondered that Fineman wouldn’t handle a retail job; meanwhile, it appeared as if Fineman was mentally reconstructing the memory of how she got sacked at the age of 16. She had been fired as a camp counselor, which left the costars shocked as one suggested she was flirting with one of the campers. The reason she got fired proved to be a bombshell! 

“I pantsed a boy. He would lift my shirt all the time. It was a different time. He would be like, ‘Hey, could I have a hug?’ And then I’d go to hug him, and he’d lift my shirt, like a d***. And then I was like, ‘I’m going to get back at you.’ And so we were on a hike, and I was like, ‘Hey, Ollie, go look over there. It’s a hawk.’ He looked, and then I yanked his pants down, and then I was fired.” Fineman, according to WindsorStar’s article.

Vanity Fair’s Major Faux Pas

Variety directly called out Vanity Fair for the video, stating it was edited and removed the mention of the boy being 6, as well as the context that his “little ding-a-ling was out.” According to Variety, the video also originally showed Padilla saying, “Oh, honey, I think you’re on a list somewhere.” The picture certainly isn’t pretty for Fineman, but what about Vanity Fair for cutting out these tidbits? 

Watching their video, the editing job was not done well. You can see as the costars go from laughing and shocked when she says she pantsed the boy, to looking horrified as she said, “And then I was fired.” Vanity Fair did not do a clean job of patching the footage, which led to others digging for the truth. Both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter tried reaching out for comment on April 6, 2026, with no update as of this time.

Social Media Is On Fire

Users across social media have been posting the unedited alongside the edited versions to give the whole world a real look at what went on behind the public’s eyes. What they attempted to hide from the world doesn’t just make Fineman look bad. It makes Vanity Fair look as if they hoped they cut it cleanly enough to keep people from digging for the real explosive part of the whole take. But why would Vanity Fair hide this?

It could be to take away the fact that Padilla pointed out something they had not anticipated. The bombshell could very well have her on a list, especially if it were made public. This would be harassment of a minor as well as mismanagement of power while she was in the position of a camp counselor, someone who is meant to look out for and take care of the children. Is that the possibility that many users online have been pointing out as they question why Vanity Fair chose to remove those details?