More "Jersey Shore" Trouble - Show Is Investigated For Labor Violations

[JamesG]

Italian group asks MTV to cancel Jersey Shore
AP Tue Nov 24

FAIRFIELD, N.J. – A national Italian-American organization based in New Jersey says an MTV reality show that depicts Italian-American beachgoers as the "hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos" is offensive and should be scrapped before it airs.

UNICO National said Tuesday that "Jersey Shore" relies on crude stereotypes and highlights cursing, bad behavior and violence in depicting renters at a New Jersey beach house.


An MTV promo says the participants "keep their hair high, their muscles juiced and their fists pumping all summer long!"

UNICO President Andre DiMino calls the show "trash television."

It's scheduled to debut Dec. 3.


MTV spokeswoman Emily Yeomans says the show continues the channel's history of documenting various subcultures and young people's rites of passage.

She says the Italian-American cast "takes pride in their ethnicity."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091125/..._show_italians

[browneyes106]

I'm not surprised by this. For the past couple of years MTV's True Life series did two shows on Jersey shore renters and one on Jersey girls. A bunch of people complained online and said MTV was purposelly picking certain people for their shows. I think Jersey Shore is just going to be a Real Word/drama type show.

[JamesG]

The Opie and Anthony radio show did a hilarious commentary on Jersey Shore.

It is long and a little vulgar so if you don't like that then don't bother.

It's in 5 parts so here is the link to the first. You can find the rest on the page - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMtQBPWi6pA

[JamesG]

MTV Pulls Punch Clip From Jersey Shore
Saturday – December 12, 2009

MTV has announced that it has pulled a scene from the next episode of Jersey Shore that shows lead star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi getting punched in the face.

In the scene - which went viral after it was previewed during this past Thursday's show - a man is seen knocking Polizzi's face back violently at a club.

The New York Post has identified her attacker as New York City gym teacher Lou Ferro, 24, who was arrested that same evening for the assault (which left Polizzi, 21, with an injury to the mouth), according to the Post.



"What happened to "Snooki" was a crime and obviously extremely disturbing," MTV said in a statement Friday.

"After hearing from our viewers, further consulting with experts on the issue of violence, and seeing how the video footage has been taken out of context to not show the severity of this act or the resulting consequences, MTV has decided not to air "Snooki" being physically punched in next week's episode."


The network said the episode will still make clear what events happened that night and plans to air a message at the end of the show listing available resources for those in abusive relationships.

The clip has also been removed from YouTube.




Jersey Shore has come under fire by Italian-Americans, who claim the show exploits a stereotype.

Italian-American Alyssa Milano told Usmagazine.com the show -- about eight self-described "guidos" and "guidettes" on the Jersey Shore -- "upset" her.

UNICO National, the nation's largest Italian American service organization, has even asked MTV to cancel the show.



But Polizzi said people need to relax.

On The Wendy Williams Show Friday, she said "'guidos' and 'guidettes' are good-looking people that, you know, like to make a scene and be center of attention and just take care of themselves ... We're 22 to 29 just having fun at the shore. They are just taking it way out of proportion."

http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmu...shore-20091212

[JamesG]

Jersey shore community feels smeared

Residents say MTV show misrepresents Seaside Heights
Associated Press
Dec 22, 2009


SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. -- On MTV's reality show "Jersey Shore," the Beachcomber Bar is a place where the clothes are skimpy and punches can fly.

But there's another reality in the resort town Seaside Heights, which is both a setting and a state of mind on the show about eight buff, tanned twentysomethings and the havoc they create while living together for a month in a posh home.



As the show airs this month and next, the town of some 3,100 year-round residents is hushed. Most of the boardwalk businesses are closed. Only a few fishermen and some beach rehabilitation workers are out. The Ferris wheel and carnival games are shuttered.

And the people who are around this time of year say this just isn't the same place as the one on the show, which was filmed in the summer when the town's population grows tenfold with families at the beach by day and a sometimes wild club scene by night.



Just as one group of Italian-Americans has protested, claiming the show gives them a bad name, many locals think it smears the community.

"You're trying to create a family town, and you got a bunch of kids acting very rude, and it doesn't create a good image," said John LaStalla, a 44-year-old native and municipal worker.

The stars, mostly Italian-Americans and including only one from New Jersey, dance, pump iron and party -- a lot. They work in a T-shirt shop -- a little. And their specialty is drama, whether it involves each other, the people they meet, boyfriends from home or moms. Though unscripted, there are echoes of sitcoms.



Much like when Peter from the "Brady Bunch" juggles two dates at once, cast members Pauly Delvecchio and Mike "The Situation" Sorrento try to get two women out of the house to make room for two more. It's hardly a spoiler to reveal the plan doesn't work so well.


Even before the show debuted Dec. 3, the New Jersey-based Italian-American service organization UNICO National called on MTV to cancel it, deeming it offensive and reliant on crude stereotypes.

Since then, MTV, which has long put strong-willed strangers in homes together and filmed what follows, has stopped referring to the "Jersey Shore" cast as guidos in its promos -- even though cast members frequently and proudly call themselves guidos on the show.

The network, in a catch-all statement, said: "We understand that this show is not intended for every audience and depicts just one aspect of youth culture. Our intention was never to stereotype, discriminate or offend."



The cast members have gotten plenty of mileage out of their self-centered personas, appearing on the Video Game Awards and on Jay Leno's and Jimmy Kimmel's talk shows. Their show's popularity also has been picking up, going from under 1.4 million viewers for its premiere to 2.5 million for Episode 4 last week.


Members of the cast weren't available for comment by telephone Monday.



While the stars are making the publicity rounds, the Beachcomber Bar is as desolate as the boardwalk. Fewer than a half-dozen people are there at midday. All of them arrived bundled up, all have seen the show and all have opinions.

Jill Hickey, 25, lives in Wildwood, a Jersey shore town 80 miles to the south. She knows her part of the shore to be a calmer, quieter place, and she doesn't like that viewers may equate her home with the more raucous shore depicted on the show.

"They should call it 'North Jersey Shore,' " she said as she sipped a beer.


And Domenic Piro, 31, also from Wildwood, wants it known: "We're not all like that."



Bar manager Mike Carbone said pretty much everyone who comes into the sprawling tropic-themed tavern has an opinion, most not so hot.

The Beachcomber is as good a place as any to talk about the show. It's where cast member Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi was punched in a hype-generating incident, video of which appeared on MTV promotions and circulated online but didn't air on the show itself. Still, Carbone said a group of people came in recently and took photos re-enacting the punch.

And the viewing party for each new episode on Thursday nights pumps up a wintertime crowd.

Carbone said the critics -- including his patrons -- should just calm down.

"Some people are like, 'Oh, my God, look how dumb this makes New Jersey look,' " he said. "But it's not even a show about New Jersey. It's about people who come down to the Jersey shore."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...16629e6fb8e177

[catlover79]

I'm sorry, but this all strikes me as hilarious!

[JamesG]

NJ lawmakers ask MTV to cancel Jersey Shore
Thu Dec 24

TRENTON, N.J. – MTV is getting more pressure to cancel its "Jersey Shore" reality show.


The latest criticism comes from the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus, which says the show promotes derogatory ethnic stereotypes and is "wildly offensive."

In a letter sent Tuesday to the president of Viacom, MTV's parent company, caucus chairman Joseph Vitale asks that the show be immediately taken off the air.


The state lawmakers also have asked advertisers to boycott the show, which focuses on eight tanned 20-somethings and their escapades in Seaside Heights, a popular New Jersey beach town.

On Wednesday, a Viacom spokesman referred a request for comment to an MTV spokesperson, who did not immediately respond. MTV has said its intention is not to stereotype or offend.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091224/...w_nj_lawmakers

[JamesG]

MTV's Jersey Shore investigated for labor violations
By Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger
December 23, 2009

MTV's "Jersey Shore" is being investigated by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development for possible violations of employment and wage practices at the request of a state legislator who also says the show violates the spirit of the state's anti-bias laws and should be canceled immediately.



Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) also wants the department to look into the tax status of The Shore Store, at which castmates have been shown working — if that’s what you call half-heartedly hawking booty shorts emblazoned with “The Situation,” the nickname for the well-toned abs of one of the castmates.


A spokesman for the labor department could not confirm the investigation late Wednesday.



In the press release decrying "Jersey Shore," Vitale doesn't detail any specific reason he thinks MTV may have violated labor laws. MTV did not have an immediate response to the new charges.

The network has previously defended itself against charges of offensive stereotyping by saying the show depicts just one aspect of youth culture, and that the castmates themselves have embraced the term "Guido."

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/cele...estigated.html