newjerseynewsroom.com

BY LINDA MOSS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Gayle Giacomo

Age: 52

Resides: Bridgewater

Owner of Gatsby Salon, Green Brook

When she went to the Manhattan casting call for "Jerseylicious" with her daughter, Gayle Giacomo didn't think she had a real chance of getting on the show.

"I'm too old," she thought. But she and her daughter Christy Pereira, who live only a mile apart in Bridgewater, nonetheless enjoyed their jaunt into the city and "had a blast," according to Giacomo.

But Giacomo did get a call back. She talked to the staff at her beauty parlor, Gatsby Salon in Green Brook, and all agreed to do the TV show for the Style Network. "Jerseylicious" is about Giacomo's salon and its stylists.

Since Giacomo is 52, her daughter is 30 and the show's main character, Olivia Blois Sharpe is 22, the reality "docu-soap" has the potential to appeal to many female age groups.

Giacomo is a long-haired redhead with striking big grey eyes. Divorced twice and a widow once, she relaunched Gatsby Salon, which her deceased husband Danny started 32 years ago, in August. The salon has some employees who have been there since it opened 32 years ago.

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Part of "Jerseylicious" will be about Giacomo's attempts to start dating after divorcing the man she married after Danny passed away.

Style Network describes "Jerseylicious" as "an outrageous look" "the big hair" and "fake nails" of the Garden State's women. While Jersey girls may be the butt of a lot of jokes, Giacomo is proud of her Jersey roots, believing she and her clients are much more stylish than other ladies across the nation.

"I just feel we're like we're very styling," Giacomo said. "We have a lot of style as women. I think men do, too, here. I think we're very classic. I think we really care about ourselves. Hearing about other states, I think we're very vain, but in a good way."

But New Jersey style may seem overdone and flashy for women in some parts of the country. But that doesn't mean those women will be critical of Giacomo and her "Jerseylicious" stylists, according to Sarah Weidman, Style Network's senior vice president of development and new series.

The show was every well received by focus groups, Weidman said.

"In a couple of initial tests we did, the women who watched it were, ‘Oh my God, I love these women,'" Seidman said. "And we're like, ‘Do you find them stylish?' And the response for this group of women, because they're in LA, was, ‘Well, that's not my style, but they believe in their style — and how much pride they take — how they do their hair, what they put on.' And that is very well-respected. Whether it's your style or not, you can appreciate it. And for that, it's a fit for the network."

There is a "Jerseylicious" episode where the Gatsby Salon stylists go to a high-end salon in Manhattan, and get "sort of a make-under," toning down their hair and makeup, Seidman said.

"The second they left, they said, ‘I can't stand it,'" and quickly went back to their old hairdos and makeup, according to Seidman.

Most of Giacomo's family heartily approves of her doing the "Jerseylicious" show — except for her mom.

"My mother doesn't understand it," Giacomo said. "She is just like ‘I don't understand what you're doing.' She's older. My dad is very excited and smiles all the time."

She added, "My brother, who is in business, thought that this was great and he really thinks it's an opportunity that I couldn't let go. And he loved my husband and he thought this was great for him."