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On an early January morning in New York City’s Meatpacking District, complete with light flurries outside, the cast of Jersey Shore Family Vacation was suiting up in their boardwalk best. Just after the final touches of hair and makeup were applied, they slipped into their signature t-shirts, tank tops, and shorts to film the opening shots for the trailer that would tease the latest batch of episodes on MTV, beginning tonight, Jerzday, at 8pm ET/PT. And while I’ve been present for cast gatherings before, often ahead of reunion tapings, the vibe here was noticeably comfortable and calm. After all, they just had to be themselves, and this group has spent the better part of the last decade being nothing but their true, absolute selves with each other. Not to mention, they sure are great at it — and this morning was no exception.
“We’re not painting today?” Pauly D asked when he saw me, referring to our summer interview session, and clearly noticing I had not come prepared with paints or canvases for the bunch. Instead, I was only armed with questions about what was ahead on the show, including several very promising moments, especially for this group.
First and foremost, every cast member was excited to talk about Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino’s return to the show and release from prison in September 2019 after serving a full eight-month sentence for tax evasion. Tonight’s episode picks up just before Mike comes home as his roommates and especially his wife, Lauren, eagerly await his arrival, and so the group invites her out for a night of bowling to get her mind off of it. But a night of bowling with this group is never just a night of bowling, which means strip club shenanigans and a subsequent verbal altercation with an ice cream man later in the episode. Most dedicated fans can likely think of two words to sum that up: Yeah, buddy!
“It was unbelievable for the eight months that I was in prison I was pretty much daydreaming about getting out of prison,” Mike told me that morning. “Seeing my wife, seeing my friends, getting back to work, the job that I love to do. The day that I got out was the day that MTV picked me up and we just hit the ground running. I’m excited every time we have a season because once we all come together everyone’s personalities mix together. It’s very special and dynamic and everyone’s personality is so bold and authentic and that’s what makes us so great. So I’m very excited for the fans to see another awesome Jersey Shore Family Vacation and also the transformation and the return of The Situation.”
He also revealed that he’s aware and grateful that he’s got plenty of people rooting for him both inside and outside of prison. “I was lucky when I got into prison they were fans of Jersey Shore. They were fans of my work and they were also fans of my transformation. They liked the fact that I had turned into a good person after a certain amount of years and I worked hard to be my best self.” And while his new pals in prison asked him about his life outside — and on the shore — it was his shore friends that asked him about life inside. “It is wild in prison and my friends had so many questions about how I slept, what did I sleep on, what did I eat, where did I work out, who did I work out with? So I explained everything to them and had a lot of funny stories and a lot of interesting stories through my experience in prison and I think it made for good TV.”
Vinny Guadagnino said that Mike integrating back into the group was just like “riding a bike,” and he admits he was one of the pals with plenty of questions ready for his friend. “It’s really just the basic human nature part of it that I was so interested in. What’s it like as soon as you get out? What’s it like to see the streetlights for the first time? I’m like a fan waiting [to watch his release on TV] to see what’s it like as soon as you see the sky.”
“I didn’t know how he was gonna be,” Vinny continued, “So I didn’t want to bombard him with anything, questions, making jokes, any of that stuff. I didn’t know if our relationship was gonna be the same, honestly. I don’t know what that does to you when you go there. You’ll see obviously everything’s great, he’s better than ever. Our relationship has never been stronger. We’ve been through so much with him since he’s been out.”
“He’s a rehabilitated man,” Pauly confirmed. “He’s killing his sobriety, doing great with that. He took the sentence like a G. He just held his head high, used it to his advantage. He came out, lost all that weight and he’s just a pleasure to be around. With Mike, it’s like he never missed a beat. He’s back to his old antics — he’s not eating as much food, but on his cheat day he’s still BDS.”
“He’s literally living his best life and he came out like that,” Jenni JWoww Farley said. “He has been so positive. I have to turn to him for inspiration. He’s amazing.” Nicole Snooki Polizzi agreed, stating, “He’s the best one out of all of us. When I’m upset or not in a great mood I just look at him and I’m like, okay. I’m fine.”
Though as excited as they were to see their pal again, the women confess they also had butterflies. But when he came through the door, which was captured for an episode this season, “We screamed and ran, it was amazing,” Nicole said. “We knew he was coming but we didn’t know when or what time. It was kind of like a first date, we were all nervous.”
“Second date because we knew him,” Jenni added. “Like butterflies on the second date.” She also said there were a lot of questions they sat with as they waited for him, wondering, “Is he gonna eat good food or is he gonna eat bad food? Is he shredded?”
“We needed that refreshing part of the house back,” Deena Cortese told me, noting that one of her favorite moments since his return was when her one-year-old son CJ got to meet him. Along with Nicole’s youngest son, Angelo, born last May, “It was a little meatball day, the two babies got to meet Mike.”
Of course, the new offspring weren’t the only change this group of friends experienced while Mike was away. Jenni’s divorce from husband Roger Matthews was finalized and the group celebrated as only they know how to, with an official divorce party for their gal. “The divorce party was a surprise,” Jenni said. “I had no idea and it was really genuine, really nice, and they put all the elements that I wanted: gay club, my roommates, dinner, desserts, lots of alcohol, party bus they decorated themselves.”
“With penises everywhere, and then we got in trouble because they can’t show it on camera so we had to scrub all the penises off,” Nicole added. “So there were literally scrubbed penises everywhere.” I asked Pauly if he helped draw the genitalia on the bus and he confirmed “I did,” with one of his big, infectious laughs. “That’s a tough time for somebody to go through but we turned it into a positive, we made a party out of it and any excuse to party for me is great.”
Vinny found this particular excuse to party rather meaningful. “I call her Super Mom,” he said of Jenni. “People don’t realize she’s such a businesswoman. She’ll go to a meeting in LA and fly home to pick up her kids from school. So to do something for her in general, I didn’t care what it was, but celebrating that night for her I was like yes, I’m happy we’re doing this.”
“Oh, that was so much fun,” Deena gushed of the occasion. “We just wanted her to let loose, not even worry about anything that night and have a good time and I think we succeeded. We went to a gay club, the best, gays are the best. I felt like all of us girls let loose like we were back in the day. I mean, not that crazy. We all dressed up in cheetah, it was old school.” It’s likely the ladies were sipping on their beloved “mom juice” aka wine, which Deena describes as a “More classy way of getting drunk. Wine, champagne, it’s more like a juice. It’s mom juice.”
Jenni’s already moved on with boyfriend Zack Carpinello, aka 24, due to his age when he was introduced on the show last year. She was unclear about how much of him we’d be seeing in the upcoming episodes as she noted he’s still getting comfortable with the cameras documenting their life, but it sounds as though she’s pretty comfortable with having him around. “She’s really giddy,” Nicole said, seated next to Jenni as the height of her ponytail was adjusted. “He came over the house a couple times and she was like [giggles] … it’s like, who are you? It’s cute to see though.”
Dedicated viewers will remember 24 from last year when his infamous waist grab of Angelia Pivarnick caused a subsequent blow-up between her and Jenni, complete with screaming and broken bottles. All seems to be repaired enough, for now, as this season the group also embarks on Angelina’s bachelorette party in New Orleans.
“New Orleans is another excuse to party for me,” Pauly said. “It was her ratchelorette party, they called it, because she’s pretty rachet. That was cool, that’s a town they just party. There was a party on every block, we were bouncing around from bar to bar.”
“Every time that we get together and there’s a party, it just brings back so many memories,” Vinny said. “Because we don’t do that every day now, we used to do it every day. So just seeing Nicole wasted, walking up and down the street, you get a little glimpse of it and it’s like Michael Jordan taking a shot, shooting around before a game. You wouldn’t see that in years but it’s still special to see. So basically Nicole is Michael Jordan, is what I’m saying. The Michael Jordan of getting wasted. That’s why she’s retiring!”
Meanwhile, Deena tried her best to get the group to take in some culture in the party city, but “nobody was into” the idea of checking out historical tours during their visit. But ultimately, she shrugged it off and realized no matter what activity they were doing, “If you’re doing it with wine, it’s a good time.” Spoken like a true meatball.
Also ahead this season is the New Jersey Medium, a friend of Nicole’s who, as Pauly put it, “was buggin’ everybody out,” with her accuracy. So what did she tell him about his future? “She didn’t really say anything about me other than yeah, I’m gonna be happy. I’m like, alright thanks, I got no information. I was a little scared, but I got nothing. I want my money back now,” he joked.
Something many of us couldn’t predict was Nicole’s announcement at the end of last year that this would be her last season as a cast member on the popular MTV show. I asked if now that she was back in the swing of spending time with her roommates, was she wavering at all? “No,” she answered quickly. “Nope! I mean, I love them but there are a lot of things that went into my decision that I know are not gonna change, so I’m good where I’m at. But they know I love them.”
It’s true, they all seem to be aware of that fact. Spending time with this group, it’s clear the bond and friendships they have with each other are clearly authentic and natural, and while sometimes forced to be a bit bendable, they’re also ultimately unbreakable. But there’s still plenty of drama to unfold in the near future. As the season ramps up to Angelina’s wedding, including the headline-making speeches we’ve heard whispers about, we’ll also see unexpected cast members pulled into some drama along the way. “Unfortunately, you’ll see I get involved with some drama but I hate drama, I feel like I’m too old for it,” Deena told me. In fact, it seems as though there’s only one guy that’s completely able to side-step it on this show. “No one can get mad at Pauly,” Vinny said, and Pauly could only laugh at the truth behind that statement. “The drama to me is so entertaining for myself, that’s like my television. I watch these guys’ drama and I might amp it up a little bit,” Pauly admitted. “I will say something to Angelina that’s somewhat mean but she’ll get mad at him for it,” he said, pointing to Vinny getting a touch-up on his haircut in the barber’s chair next to him. “It’s the craziest thing. But me and this guy, we riff off each other, oh my goodness he gets me going.”
“Everybody loves him,” Vinny said of his friend. “He’s worse than anybody, but he’s a saint so no one cares when Pauly does it.” And there could be many, many more years of it if Vinny has his way. “I always said I hope Jersey Shore lives on, I hope we can be in a nursing home doing Jersey Shore. I’m sure there would be drama at that age, me and Pauly would still be single, hitting on nurses and stuff.” The question is, will we still be watching? You already know the answer: yeah, buddy!
