‘Jersey Shore’ in Italy: Actions louder than (unknown) words
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“There was a little bit of language barrier — although, I didn’t have a language barrier with women. At the end of the day, between men and women, it’s all eye contact. That’s my language. I’m fluent in it.” -- such a quote could only be said by a man who coined himself “The Situation”
Mike Sorrentino, one-eighth of the uber-tan cast of “Jersey Shore,” recently recounted his time in Italy, which viewers will get a glimpse of when the fourth season of MTV’s plum reality series premieres Aug. 4. It was clear that verbal miscommunication didn’t prevent the smush room from getting utilized.
But it’s not like Sorrentino didn’t try to learn Italian. He had Rosetta Stone — though, he never used it. And when The Times visited the cast’s Florence abode, lying in pristine condition was an “Italian for Dummies” book near his dazzling shoe collection.
When Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi first got word that the show would be shooting in Italy, preparing by learning a few key phrases wasn’t a concern.
‘I didn’t prepare,’ she said. ‘I just thought I’d go and do my thing.’
Instead, it seems, the cast relied on Vinny Guadagnino and Sammi Giancola for their translation needs. Pauly DelVecchio relied on phrases like “non lo so” (I don’t know) and “non parlo italiano” (I don’t speak Italian) to get through the weeks-long production. But, mostly, he did a lot of hand gesturing.
And maybe it’s a good thing most of them didn’t understand the language, considering all those reports of Italian outrage over the posse’s visit.
‘We saw all those reports,’ DelVecchio said. ‘I was nervous. I thought they were going to throw rocks at us from the way the media made it seem. That wasn’t the case. People were welcoming. If they were talking junk, I couldn’t understand them anyway.’
Read more about ‘Jersey Shore’s’ Italian getaway.
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-- Yvonne Villarreal
twitter.com/villarrealy
