Oh, Jersey Shore, can't you let anyone be their best self? Of course, the whole point of the show is partying, hookups, and roommate drama — GTL notwithstanding — but we thought that through it all Vinny Guadagnino would remain the good guy. Alas, not even he could stay on the straight and narrow in Miami for Family Vacation — at least not enough to satisfy his girlfriend at the time, Elicea Shyann. Though Guadagnino says his televised antics at a strip club were mostly innocent, she has taken to social media to lash out at all of us for watching.
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"Here’s some free promotion!!!! for the trash everyone loves to watch," Shyann wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post with a clip from last Thursday night's episode, according to Us Weekly. In it, we see Guadagnino flirting a lot with the bottle waitress at a strip club.
"When I'm out at a club without my girl, I usually like to talk to the bottle girls because usually they'll be nice to you but they don't turn it up with you," he says in the promo clip. "They're there to do a job. But these bottle girls are like turning up."
Guadagnino hugs the waitress and shares a drink with her, and his antics are enough to make his roommates worried that he's going to do something he'll regret. He apparently gave two different waitresses his number, which he confessed to Shyann the next day. She was not pleased.
In April, Guadagnino told Entertainment Tonight that the show wasn't exactly the cause of his breakup, which happened after he returned home, but "[the show] is the type of thing that could really be the straw that breaks the camel’s back." He also blamed the fact that they were dating long distance already (she's in California; he lives in New York) and that they had little communication during filming.
Shyann's Instagram posts make it seem like the events of last week's episode were quite the straw. "I’m a real fucking person who wakes up DAILY to more and more bullshit and heartache," she wrote. "Humiliation disrespect zero empathy lol it’s truly AMAZING. Everyone lives for the drama watching good things go to shit."
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She's not wrong. While we all know reality TV is a heavily manipulated art form — and there most certainly were producers orchestrating this trip to the club, probably even making sure there was a very attractive bottle server willing to be on TV as she flirted with these minor celebrities — we forget that there is still some element of reality too. That's the part we don't necessarily see on camera, what happens to the people at home who didn't sign up for the fame and fortune of an MTV show but whose lives are turned upside down by it anyway. Shyann did willingly date someone who made his name on MTV, but she couldn't have predicted all of this.
Guadagnino is still defending his good-guy status. (At least he’s no Ronnie Magro, right?) He took to Twitter to defend himself on Tuesday.
"I can give other girls drunk compliments and still love and be loyal to my girl," he wrote. "And that wasn’t my phone it was the house itouch (we don’t have phones)so that we can all turn up again as a group. (While still remaining loyal)<-impossible right ?!"
Yep... i can give other girls drunk compliments and still love and be loyal to my girl.. and that wasn’t my phone it was the house itouch (we don’t have phones)so that we can all turn up again as a group. (While still remaining loyal)<-impossible right ?! https://t.co/erZ9owrLEY
— Vinny Guadagnino (@VINNYGUADAGNINO) May 22, 2018
He later wrote that he wasn't defending himself from Shyann, but from the people on Twitter and elsewhere who accused him of cheating.
"I admit I did things that made my gf UNCOMFORTABLE , but throwin the word cheating around is such click bait dishonesty," he said.
Maybe we all owe both of them an apology for watching?