newjerseynewsroom.com

BY LINDA MOSS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The Gatsby Salon is the setting for the newest reality-TV show out of the Garden State, "Jerseylicious," and owner Gayle Giacomo believes that her late husband will be looking down from heaven with approval.

She and her husband Danny, who passed away nearly a dozen years ago, have had the beauty parlor in Green Brook in Central New Jersey for 32 years. He was a pioneer in finding ways to promote the business.

Giacomo and five members of her staff at Gatsby will be the centerpiece of "Jerseylicious," which Style Network describes as a one-hour "comedy docu-soap."

The show started filming in October and just wrapped up filming in early December. The first of its eight episodes will premiere March 21.

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The average Joe may wonder why anyone would put themselves in the spotlight on TV, facing possible embarrassment, in front of a national audience. But Giacomo, 52, and her daughter Christy Pereira, 30, the salon's manager, are thrilled to have been chosen for the show.

The red-headed mother and brunette daughter, who both live in Bridgewater, see "Jerseylicious" as a huge opportunity for Gatsby, which they relaunched this August in a new location.

"My first reasoning was, wow, this could be really great marketing and PR for a very rough time," Giacomo said during an interview in December at Gatsby before a shooting. "It's a recession. We're having a hard time. My husband Danny...I believe this would be something that he would have dreamed of, to be on TV like this without paying for it."

Pereira said that there is a photo of her stepdad Danny in the front of Gatsby, who did local infomercials years ago.

"He loved being in the spotlight," she said. "He would be before his time with reality shows. He had his own reality show with his infomercial, and explaining haircuts and explaining the business and himself."

"Jerseylicious" was shot mainly in the Gatsby Salon, but it also filmed at: the Anthony Robert Salon in Verona, which is owned by cast member Anthony Lombardi, 35, of Fairfield; the chic upscale CoCo Pari boutique in Red Bank; the 46 Lounge in Totowa; the Origin Thai restaurant in Somerville, and even the Brownstone in Paterson, which is owned by the husband of Caroline Manzo, of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."

Having a hit TV show is rare, but New Jersey have been the setting of several of them recently, both fiction and non-fiction. HBO's "The Sopranos" was a cultural phenomenon. "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" was a hit. And MTV's "Jersey Shore" has created a controversy over its depiction of Italian Americans.

If anyone can make a hit out of "Jerseylicious," its producer, Endemol USA, can. The company has a golden track record in reality TV. It has produced such hits as "Wipeout," "Big Brother," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Deal or No Deal."

Three-time Emmy Winner Alex Duda is executive producer for "Jerseylicious," and she pitched the show to Style Network.

Hair salons have been the setting for reality shows before, such as Bravo's "Tabathas Salon Takeover" and "Blow Out" and Style Network's "Split Ends."

"Being the Style Network, it's definitely in our domain," Weidman said.

"Jerseylicious" is like an extension of "Split Ends," a kind of "Wife Swap" where hair stylists from different parts of the country change places, according to Weidman.

"Jerseylicious" will chronicle the relaunch of the Gatsby Salon as it tries to expand its clientele and moves from one location in a strip mall on busy Route 22, which is lined for miles with strip malls, to another a space a few doors down.

New Jersey is a small state, and as luck would have, one of Sharpe's neighbors and acquaintances is Teresa Giudice, the famous table flipper from "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."

Every reality show has a character who stirs the pot, causes conflict and tension, and this is apparently Sharpe's s role, as she tangles with stylist Tracy DiMarco, 22, of Montclair. Both women have dated the same man, which can tend to cause tension between girlfriends.

"I'm the pot stirrer?" Sharpe said, feigning innocence. "Is that correct? I'm like the angel, I swear."

Another key "Jerseylicious" cast member, stylist Lombardi of Fairfield, chimed in and said, "We have a bunch of pot stirrers."

Seidman acknowledged that Sharpe adds spice to the show.

"If you push her buttons, she's not so laid back," Weidman said. "She's a bit of a spark plug"

The cast was tight-lipped about other details of the show.

"I've had fun doing this," Sharpe said. "It's basically just us working in the salon and then you see us in our real lives and our family and our friends and me and one of the girls had a confrontation for the past year from other things. It's kind of carrying through into here."

The sixth main "Jerseylicious" cast member is Gigi Liscio, 22, of East Chester, N.Y., described by Style Network as "a sweet, down-to-earth stylist."

"It's an interesting, eclectic group of women who are coming together," Weidman said. "They are all very different from each other. Gayle is well-established, owns the salon, has been doing this business for years and is a grown-up. And then you look at Olivia who is a baby makeup artist, or Tracy, who's a baby hair stylist, and they've got a lot of experience and a lot of life to live before they come to a place where Gayle is. She's a wise woman."

Lombardi owns his own salon in Verona on Bloomfield Avenue, the Anthony Robert Salon. He came to work at Gatsby Salon while his own business was undergoing a renovation.

During a recent Friday night at around 7 p.m., the "Jerseylicious" cast and crew was huddled inside the space that used to house Gatsby, a large room that is stripped to the wall studs and located a few doors down from the new salon. Gatsby is in a Green Brook strip mall that also includes a Bonefish Grill, a Jeffries Bridals and MyBedToGo.com.

The old Gatsby location has served as a makeshift production headquarters, dining room and dressing room for the show. Duda is there, and the cast members are changing for the night's shoot. Sharpe puts on lace leggings, stilettos and a tight, low-cut blouse.

Gayle will don a backless dress and heels that look about nine inches tall. It will be a long haul her, as she has worked at the salon all day and will be shooting until about 1 a.m.

The new Gatsby Salon is sleek and contemporary, with beige walls and lots of mirrors. There are two pedicure stations tucked in a nook behind drapes of bead curtains. There are also rooms for threading and waxing. The cost for a women's haircut is $55 to $60.

Style Network's demographic is women, and the channel's strategy is to offer them aspirational and uplifting stories about females, according to Weidman.

"All of the personalities on the network have a story to tell, and we don't do shows that just are superficial," Weidman said. "We try to find inspiration in the stories, and motivation, and provide maybe role models. At the same time, we want to keep everyone entertained, and one through-line for all of our programming is there is a sense of irreverence, and a wink, and they tend to be a bit comedic."

Ironically, none of the "Jerseylicious" cast appear to be big reality-TV show fans.

Giacomo said she caught one episode of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," the one where Giudice flips a table. Giacomo is not a big TV watcher in general.

"You know why?" she said. "Because I'm working so much and I don't know how to do that DVR, or whatever you call it. I'd come here and hear everybody else talk about it (‘Real Housewives of New Jersey'). I saw one show of it, when she threw the table. That was OK. I thought it was cute. I liked it. But the one show I saw, everybody else loved it."

And she was no fan of "Blow Out," featuring Antin.

"I couldn't stand his crying jags and how rude he was to his employees," Giacomo said.

As for how "real" a TV show can be when all the characters know they are being filmed by a camera? Giacomo and her daughter Pereira swear that after awhile they forgot that the cameras were there.

"The first day they are on you, you don't know who this person is, or who this camera is," Pereira said. "But right now, you know who that person is and you're so used to the camera there, that you're kind of just are ignoring it and you're really being yourself."

Giacomo is eager for the premiere of "Jerseylicious" this spring.

"And the greatest thing is Gatsby's is going to be on TV," she said. "Eight big hour-episodes, and my husband's going to be watching and smiling from ear to ear. So this is a great experience, and I think it's going to be really good, but who am I? That's how I feel. I think it's going to be good."