Real World D.C. in Real Time

"#RWDC at Karaoke right now. RT @CaitlinKirby: Karaoke at sticky rice in dc. The Real World is here, this should be interesting."

For anyone unfamiliar with Twitter, #RWDC refers to "The Real World D.C.," the long-running MTV reality show currently filming in Washington, D.C. At about 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 25, someone tweeted the location of the cast on RealWorldDCNEWZ, the Twitter page devoted to "the scoop…because somebody's got to do it," according to its bio.

With the number of blogs, Twitter pages, websites, maps and articles dedicated to the comings and goings of those reality show stars, almost none of the eight cast members can strut or prance around outside of their house on 2000 S St. NW without their actions being broadcast to the other real world-that is, the real real one.

According to vevmo.com, an online forum for discussing TV and reality shows, the cast is made up of Andrew Woods, Ashley Lindley, Callie Walker, Emily Schromm, Erika Lauren Wasilewski, Josh Colon, Michael Manning and Ty Ruff. While "The Real World" is notorious for the lustful or bitter fireworks that explode among cast mates, a considerable amount of drama has already developed among the people and media choosing to document MTV's reality show in their own ways.

With RealWorldDCNEWZ chronicling the day-to-day actions of the cast with the help of dozens of eyes and Blackberries around the city, the "Anti-Real World DC," found at antirealworld.com, is a blog devoted to disparaging the show. It is written by a neighbor of the Real World house named Berg, who, according to the site, has a goal to "chronicle the pain and annoyance they put me and my neighbors through as well as the heckling my friends and I plan for the newest crop of 'real worlders.'"

On August 12, one contributor posted about the camera crew filming just outside of the Real World house while a D.C. police officer directed traffic. The blogger griped about the "great use of tax dollars-esp. in a recession." Immediately after the posting went up, a flurry of comments, both disparaging and genuinely informative, poured in to point out that, in fact, the production company pays for police detail, and by the way, the blogger is an "idiot" and should "get over it," the site "blows" and it makes D.C. residents look "PATHETIC."

Alongside the first-hand anecdotes about the cast and crew, commentary on those live updates by other bloggers fans the flames of controversy. Shawn Behnam, a.k.a. Shabooty, is the editor of shabooty.com, and he has blogged about The Real World D.C. cast. Behnam described himself as a "humorist." "I'll point out something douchy and make fun of it," he said.

For example, a blogger for Anti-Real World DC posted a picture of a no-parking sign that was outside of the Real World house in early August. The sign read that a storage container belonging to "Erika" was to going to be placed there, and as a result, the blogger assumed that Erika Lauren Wasilewski was being kicked off the show. After a quick Google search of the phone number written on the sign, Behnam posted on Shabooty that the Erika on the sign might actually be Erika Sussman, the executive director of The Center for Survivor Agency and Justice, an advocacy group for survivors of "oppression-based intimate partner violence," to which the number belonged.

This particular post about Erika is just one in a string of posts about her on shabooty.com. Behnam said that he originally picked Erika, who is a singer as a subject of a post because she seemed like an "easy target to make fun of" based on her Myspace pictures. In response to Behnam's first Erika post, a number of Erika's friends from her home town, including her ex-boyfriend, posted on Shabooty with more scandalous information about her past. That ensuing dish-fest by her old friends occurred "organically," Behnam said, as her friends happened upon shabooty.com.

In much the same way that viewers watch the heavily dramatized "Real World" when it airs on MTV, an internet surfer observes the Tweeting, commenting, bashing, finger-pointing and satirizing emanating from the self-appointed chroniclers of "The Real World D.C." as it unfolds in real-time in the real real world.

One commenter on "Anti-Real World DC" wrote of the blog's editors that "the ONLY reason why you created this is to try to get some fame off the fact that they are filming a show across the street from you." Maybe this comment can be applied to everyone; just fill in the last part differently.

A Close Encounter with the Real World

With the cast of MTV's "The Real World" on the loose in D.C. this summer and fall, you might just run into one of the cast mates when you are out on the town, especially since one of them is a bartender at Rhino.

Lauren Janson, (COL '10) was living at Georgetown over the summer, working for the Corp and researching in a psychology lab, when she happened upon the whole cast on their first night out in Georgetown.

Janson said she followed the cast members, who were bar-hopping from Third Edition to Rhino. At Rhino, the management made an exception for the group to play beer-pong upstairs.

"They were dancing with each other and also trying to dance with other people in the bar," said Janson.

But not everyone was thrilled to bump into the cast and crew. Janson said that while most people stood around, watched and tried not to get involved, "some people were really put off that they were there."

When Janson talked to Josh, one of the eight on the show, it was clear that the hostility had registered with the cast.

"He felt frustrated that people in D.C. didn't want them there," she said. He told her "he wasn't there to pollute D.C."

Janson said that one of the cast members got into a physical fight with another girl in the bar. "It was kind of staged," she said.

Even without prodding from the other club-goers, the cast mates were generating drama amongst themselves. Janson said that Emily, a girl on the show who is bisexual, "didn't want the guys hooking up with anyone else" but she was hooking up with girls. "Another girl was so belligerently drunk she couldn't stand up."

Janson, who somewhat sheepishly admitted that she watches The Real World regularly, said that she would definitely watch "Real World D.C." when it airs next year. She said that some girls from Georgetown have become "regulars" on the show because one of them is dating a cast member.

Elizabeth Scott, the corporate sales and marketing manager for Capital Restaurant Concepts, the group that owns Paolo's, Thirds and few other Georgetown restaurants, said that the company gave permission for the cast and crew to come into any of their restaurants over the course of filming, which continues into October. That leaves two more months to get 15 minutes of fame.

Cheimets is a Physics senior.