Crush: Hollywood’s Next GenerationThe ‘Jersey Shore’ Gang Invades NYC
They're baaack! And the cast from MTV's phenomenally popular and addictive reality TV show, "Jersey Shore," is no longer confined to the Garden State. This week's season premiere will find the fist-pumping tanzillas in Miami, and on Tuesday, they ventured north to New York to ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange.
Wearing mostly black and gray duds so they would fit in on Wall Street (yeah, right!), the tacky 20-somethings apparently caused quite the commotion. "It was like a car crash here this morning; people couldn't help but stare," bystander Benedict Willis told MSNBC. "It was like P.T. Barnum's freak show was in town." Ouch.
The Princess of Poughkeepsie, Snooki, in particular, was also the subject of a not-so-flattering article in none other than The New York Times last week that said, "Trying to hold a conversation with Snooki is a little like getting down on your hands and knees with a child. ... She is really only responsive to her own immediate needs and desires."
But despite how much Snooki, The Situation, JWOWW, and all the rest have been mocked and ridiculed by some, they've been feeling a whole lot of love from the 4.8 million viewers who watched the show last season and from MTV. The network's reportedly raised their paychecks from $10,000 to $30,000 per episode for the already promised Season 3. According to RadarOnline.com, they've even added a new cast member: Deena Nicole Cortese, an old gal-pal of Snooks.
So haters aside, it seems "Jersey Shore" will be around for years to come, beginning with Thursday's big premiere. But if you can't wait until then -- and really, what serious fan can? -- check out this behind-the-scenes footage the Los Angeles Times collected from the filming of "Jersey Shore's" second season. It's missing the bumping soundtrack and the slick packaging of the finished product, but it offers a glimpse of what life with the cast is really like.
