Coming back to make waves

From Jonathan Storm's "Eye of the Storm"

www.philly.com/philly/blogs/storm

There's a summer situation brewing at the Jersey Shore, and isn't that a clever way of sounding the alarm that MTV's Jersey Shore Guidos and Guidettes are returning to Seaside Heights after causing quite a ruckus last summer and getting huge ratings (at least for MTV) but mixed reviews from government functionaries and business owners? Seaside Heights Town Administrator John Camera confirmed the Shore birds will be around from July 1 through Labor Day, living in the same house as last summer.

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, "Pauly D" DelVecchio, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, and Vinny Guadagnino will be bringing their sensational abs and hair gel back to the boardwalk, MTV programming president Tony DiSanto announced. And Snooki Polizzi, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, and Sammi Giancola will be bringing their bodacious bods and sunglasses, too. MTV is even giving Angelina Pivarnick a second chance, after she went screaming out the door early in the show's first season before she realized what a gold mine she was living in. . . .

The kids caused quite the kerfuffle last year just being themselves but, according to several Italian American pride groups, degrading the image of Italians in America with their boozy, brawling, minimally clothed, heavy makeout behavior. Ronnie and Sammi the Sweetheart also managed to get themselves involved a lawsuit against MTV (imagine that) when they mixed it up with a couple of civilians. Still, the network's not complaining. The show's finale attracted 4.8 million viewers, which puts it near the all-time top at MTV.

Inquirer reporter Sam Wood called down to the Heights for local comment. "There's mixed feelings," said Camera. It's "not the show that the governing body would choose as a commercial for Seaside Heights, but . . . I think there are very few people who . . . think that's what that whole town's like."

"They're going to shoot on public property, and we allow it as long as they don't block traffic. . . . We asked them to add more security. I watched every episode. At first I watched it because it's my job [but] I got hooked. I was happy there was no portrayal of lawlessness or tolerated bad behavior. And there were beautiful shots of the beach and boardwalk."

"They came here every day," said Mike Carbone Jr., bar manager of the Beachcomber. "This is where Snooki got punched in the face. . . . In this economy, I don't see how any publicity could be bad publicity. We're definitely looking forward to having them."

Robert Hilton, executive director of the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he was surprised to hear MTV would be back. "Something has changed in the last week or so. It's completely contradictory to what I've been told by them."

He said the Convention and Visitors Bureau was ramping up a campaign to promote social responsibility this summer. "We understand people want to have a good time, but there's a responsibility . . . to conduct ourselves in a way that doesn't offend other people."

But how boring is that?

The gang, instant reality royalty, held out for big raises in season two and are individually making their mark in personal appearances and even in some TV ads. They've ensconced themselves in a house in Miami, where they're filming the show that will premiere July 29, but, according to gossip-central RadarOnline.com, which has made the Guidos and their 'ettes something of a specialty, they're not getting the traditional South Beach welcome. "A lot of places don't want the cast in their clubs and restaurants because they don't have the best reputation, and they're concerned about fights breaking out," said a purported source "close to the production."

"The group went out the other night, and when they left the house they needed a police escort. And they need security wherever they go," said the source.

DiSanto, though is optimistic. "It's like a big family reunion after all this time," he said. "We couldn't be more excited that the whole group is back together in Miami and that they'll be going back to Jersey when the sun heats up."

And, hey, boys and girls, maybe you can get in on the fun, too. MTV has made no official announcement that it's beefing up the cast, but there is an online site where you can make your pitch to join.

It also looks like Iranian American pride groups will get a chance to ruffle their feathers. Casting agents in L.A. are reportedly looking for Persian "princes" and "princesses" for The Persian Version. If your life is "all about Gucci, Gabbana, Cavalli and Cristal" or "BMWs and Bugattis, to Mercedes and Movado," you reportedly qualify, providing you're over 21, don't look older than 30, and are "outrageous, outspoken, and a proud Persian-American."

From Dan DeLuca's "In the Mix"

www.philly.com/philly/blogs/ inthemix/

Malcolm McLaren, the subversive Svengali and self-aggrandizing impresario who was a major player in the creation of punk rock as both music and fashion as manager of the Sex Pistols (and before that, the New York Dolls), died of cancer in Switzerland Thursday at 64.

McLaren's outsized personality and inherent untrustworthiness as an interviewee always made it difficult to figure out what exactly he deserved credit for. Johnny Rotten (née Lydon) and McLaren spent most of their lives at odds with each other, but it was under McLaren's influence at SEX, the boutique on the Kings Road in London owned by the Situationist-schooled circus master and his then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood, where the Pistols first began their assault on civility.

The Pistols' self-destruction in 1978 was chronicled in two films directed by Julian Temple, The Great Rock and Roll Swindle (1980), which celebrates McLaren as the brains behind the group, and The Filth and the Fury (2000), which retells the story from the Pistols' point of view. "For me Malc was always entertaining," Rotten said in a statement, "and I hope you remember that. Above all else he was an entertainer and I will miss him, and so should you."

After the Pistols, McLaren went on to have a checkered but often intriguing career. After discovering 13-year-old singer Annabella Lwin, he formed the band Bow Wow Wow, which scored a hit in 1982 with the Bo Diddley-beat-driven cover of the Strangeloves' "I Want Candy". . . .

Last year, his video piece Shallow 1-21 made its full-length U.S. debut at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It consisted of 21 "musical paintings," made from cut-up old sex films. "They are not films or videos but another form entirely," he said of his artworks, calling them "a map of feelings that navigates the look of music and the sound of fashion."