A clip that has since been removed from Vanity Fair’s YouTube channel captured Saturday Night Live cast member Chloe Fineman recounting a story about being fired from a summer camp counselor position after she deliberately pulled down the pants of a six-year-old boy, who turned out not to be wearing underwear.
The moment came during a segment titled SNL Cast Test How Well They Know Each Other, in which Fineman and fellow cast members exchanged candid stories. When asked why she had been let go from the camp job, Fineman launched into the account with surprising casualness.
“I pantsed a boy,” she said in a now deleted clip, prompting immediate surprised reactions from her co-stars. When one pointed out she might be on a list somewhere, Fineman continued: “And he wasn’t wearing underpants. And then a giant school bus drove by.”
Fineman offered her defense, explaining that the boy had a habit of lifting her shirt during hugs. “He would be like, hey, can I have a hug? And I’d go to hug him. And then he’d lift my shirt like a d*ck. And then I was like, I’m going to get back at you.”
She described luring the child, whom she called Ollie, with a distraction during a group hike. “I was like, hey, Ollie, go look over there. It’s a hawk. And he looked. And then I yanked his pants down. He wasn’t wearing underwear. His little ding-a-ling was out.”
She continued: “And then these two twins were like, Ollie, I didn’t know you didn’t wear underwear. And then I was fired.”
When asked how old the child was, Fineman replied: “He was, like, six.” After one co-star expressed clear alarm, she waved it off with two words: “It was Berkeley.”
The clip was removed from the platform shortly after its release, but not before it had been widely shared and clipped across social media. Many viewers found the story deeply inappropriate, particularly given that a grown adult camp counselor deliberately exposed a young child in front of peers.
The “It was Berkeley” justification did little to ease the criticism, with many noting that location does not change the nature of what occurred.
Fineman joined SNL in 2019 and quickly became one of the show’s more recognizable impressionists, earning praise for her portrayals of Britney Spears and Drew Barrymore. Despite her on-screen success, there is a darker personal background.
According to reporting by investigative journalist Tony Ortega of The Underground Bunker, Fineman was raised by parents who are both listed in Scientology’s own publications as having reached the level of Clear, one of the organization’s major spiritual milestones.
Her father, biotech executive David Fineman, and her mother, artist Ellen Gunn, were both identified as influential members and donors within the church by former Scientologists interviewed for the story.
Ortega’s 2021 reporting also included an account from Adam Pires, a Navy veteran who left Scientology in 2018. Pires said he spent time alongside Fineman at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre in 2015 while both were completing the Purification Rundown, an intensive sauna-and-vitamins regimen that all Scientologists are required to undergo. He described getting to know her well over the weeks-long process.
“She was second generation, she grew up in it. She had done her Purif before and she was going through it again,” Pires told Ortega. He also recalled that she went Clear during that period. “I remember when she did that.”
Pires went on to buy Fineman’s car when she moved to New York in 2017. He said he believed she remained an active member of the church even after her rise to fame.
“Her parents are hardcore old school Scientologists. I wouldn’t be surprised if her success at SNL she attributes to Scientology,” he said.
Notably, Fineman’s Wikipedia page makes no reference to any Scientology connection, listing her parents’ backgrounds as Jewish and Protestant respectively, which stands in apparent contrast to the documented church records and firsthand accounts cited in Ortega’s reporting.
Shortly after Ortega sent detailed questions to both Chloe and David Fineman about the church, Chloe’s Twitter account was deleted entirely.
