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.