If you haven’t gotten enough of the ever-so-famous Snooki and the rest of her guido and guidette gang, don’t worry because there is a new group repping New Jersey. “Jerseylicous” is the newest reality television show on the Style Network with Jersey girls that have fake tans, long acrylic nails and the apparent “Jersey girl hairstyle,” teased hair with tons of hairspray.
“Jerseylicous” is set in the Gatsby Salon located in Greenbrook, N.J., only 40 minutes from New York City. The Gatsby was first opened in 1977 by Daniel Gianfrancesco but, after his death in 1998, his wife Gayle Giacomo and her daughter Christy became the owners.
Not too sure how many people tuned into “Jerseylicous” on Sunday, March 21, but the first five minutes into the show I was convinced that the show was well scripted. In the first episode, Gayle and Christy interviewed prospective workers for their newly-renovated salon. Before the girls are interviewed, they are shown partying at the clubs the night before with their Snooki outfits on. Olivia, the makeup artist, parties a little too hard the night before her interview, spending all her money, then shows up more than 30 minutes late to her interview. The girl literally has a closet on wheels in her white Hummer and gets changed in the parking lot of the Gatsby.
Olivia’s biggest enemy, Tracy, who is one of the hairstylists, is dating Olivia’s ex-boyfriend. The two apparently can never get away from each other and the competition between them is ridiculous.
Thanks to my aunt and uncle, who work with Gayle at the Gatsby, I was fully warned that the girls, who are hired to be hairstylists and makeup artists, are actually hired actresses. Not one real employee of the Gatsby is featured in the show, besides the two owners. After watching the first episode, I’m extremely happy that my Jersey-native aunt and uncle wouldn’t subject themselves to such an unrealistic show. I guess this is a good promotion for the Gatsby, but once their new clients come to the store and don’t see the guidette workers, they are going to be scratching their heads.
Just when I thought that “Jerseylicous” could possibly be the last show to make Jersey look ridiculous, I find out there is another new show that is still in the works, “Jersey Couture,” on the Oxygen network. “Jersey Couture” is featured in Monmouth County’s famous dress store shop, Diane & Company. This brings back all those high school memories where my girlfriends and I booked our appointments to have a fun-filled day of prom dress shopping. The women of Diane & Company were definitely the ones that made my prom dress shopping experience one to remember, with their pushy attitude ways and flashy dresses.
All of these Jersey-related television shows have given people an image in their minds that Jersey girls are fake-and-bakers, wear the Snooki hairstyle, and live in Ed Hardy. Wrong! We are not all parading around in gold sequined prom dresses, or table-flipping crazies. Coming from the girl who didn’t even know South Jersey existed before coming to Cabrini, I can’t speak for all of Jersey, but central Jersey is nowhere close to what these shows put us out to be. The women from “Real Housewives of New Jersey” are not originally from Jersey, “Jersey Shore” cast members, and only one is originally from Jersey and the new editions to the Gatsby Salon on “Jerseylicous,” definitely are not Jersey natives.
I understand you all think Jersey is the “armpit of America,” but these television shows perceive Jersey residents to be the un-classiest people there are out there. We have Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, we don’t pump our own gas, we have the beach and some of us have the luxury of being only a train ride away from the Big Apple. Before you assume that Jersey is all about the “Situation,” think twice before that assumption.
