Even though the cast of Jersey Shore has yet to even step foot in Italy to film the show’s fourth season, Italy officials are already coming up with rules the group must obey while shooting the show and earning $100,000 for sometimes doing as little as going into the kitchen, getting a read Dixie cup, and pouring some electrolytes into it. The Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, came up with some guidelines that Snooki, JWoww, and the like must obey while they’re in the region. Some of what they cannot do is listed as follows (as described by the New York Post): 1) The cast cannot be filmed in bars and clubs or anywhere else that serves alcohol. 2) The show cannot promote Florence as a “drinking town.” 3) The show should be filmed to promote Italy positively, by featuring its culture and delicious linguine. Additionally, Mayor Renzi has prohibited the show from filming in Florence’s historic buildings, but did seem to acknowledge that he was incapable of preventing the show from filming there at all.
Over the last few months, countless Italians have spoken out and expressed anger with MTV’s decision to film the fourth season in Italy because of its focus on the stereotypes that plague Italians, and for directly attributing the cast’s reckless behaviors and idiotic witticisms to the Italian heritage. Roberto Del Bove, a columnist for a newspaper in Rome, said “They embody the worst stereotypes of Italians, multiplied by thousands and Americanized.” But Italians aren’t the only ones displeased with the show — Americans are too. Joseph V. Del Raso, the president of the National Italian American Foundation, told The Hollywood Reporter in January that the image producers were sending Italians by filming the fourth season in Italy was also detrimental to young people in the states. He said, “It is unfortunate that American television producers want to export an image of young Americans that has little to do with the image of most of our youth. American youth has so much to offer the modern world and it is certainly not representing by caricatures portrayed by the Jersey Shore cast.”
So essentially, Italians are worried how Americans will perceive them and Americans are worried how Italians will perceive them. But seeing as one of Renzi’s laws prevents the cast from interacting with Italians in social places, the conflict doesn’t seem to be near a resolution.
