There has been considerable brouhaha in my area lately over the fact that Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey (and my alma mater, where my daughter is finishing her freshman year as we speak) decided to spend $32,000 of student activity money on one program.
The program was an evening with Snooki.
Yup, Nicole Pilozzi, "star" of Jersey Shore, a "reality" TV show on MTV, best known for drinking a lot and being short, spent an evening doing two "shows" at the public university of the Garden State, talking with a comedian about... stuff, I guess.
Now, I realize that the student activity fee is technically something that I helped pay with my daughter's tuition, so in some extremely detached way, I am partially responsible for the expenditure. And yeah, I'm concerned that this is simply another PR disaster for my home state, which is generally believed by outsiders to be a toxic waste dump run by the Mafia.
But the fact is, I don't care that Snooki walked away with some of my cash (and a lot of other people's) by providing Rutgers students with a little taste of her "celebrity." (And forget that Snooki is actually from New York State, and NOT Jersey.) The poor girl's going to be in the upholstery business by the age of 30 anyway, and college students, who chose to have the program, are SUPPOSED to make stupid selections like that. I have no problem with it.
What bothers me, and I'll admit it, is that this happened after I--that is, after last week's guest blogger E.J. Copperman--wrote AN UNINVITED GHOST.
See, part of AN UNINVITED GHOST (for the uninitiated, the second in the Haunted Guesthouse Mystery series, and you really should get a copy for yourself, your mom, your friend, your cousin Bob...) deals with the invasion of Alison Kerby's home by a reality TV crew filming the second season of Down the Shore, a television program that some believe bears some passing resemblance to Jersey Shore. Naturally, I don't see the comparison, but then, I'm just the author...'s close friend.
And boy, would a controversy revolving around a "cast member" of the fictional Down the Shore have come in handy! This one, absolutely ready made and all set to go, would have been a doozy. But no, they had to wait until right before the book (that is, AN UNINVITED GHOST, only $7.99 or less at your local bookstore and online!) was published last Tuesday. My... that is, E.J.'s luck.
Writers have to keep coming up with new plots, new scenarios, new situations for their characters to confront. So when something that ripe falls into one's lap, it's frustrating not being able to use it (you get to understand how the LAW AND ORDER guys love a good "ripped-from-the-headlines" storyline). I mean, there were so many ways to go with the Snooki-at-Rutgers-for-32-grand business.
I... E.J. write[s] murder mysteries, too. Imagine the possibilities. A cast member resented for taking a bunch of money from a public university during a politically charged budget season is found murdered. Who could be responsible? A university official whose salary has been cut? A politician trying to deflect attention from budget cuts to the school system so he can make the teacher's union look bad (gee, where could I have gotten THAT one?)? A disgruntled (that goes without saying--gruntled people don't generally commit murder) parent upset about the spending of his/her hard-earned tuition payment?
Or a fellow cast member?
Or: The reality star is the suspect when someone who has been loudly protesting her appearance for, oh, let's say $32,000 is put into jeopardy and she really needs to money for implants, or something?
The possibilities are endless. And the opportunity has passed, alas.
Of course, I... that is, E.J. is supposed to start another Haunted Guesthouse book soon. Maybe the reality TV crew from AN UNINVITED GHOST (also available on Kindle and other e-readers!) comes back, and the new star of the show is about to appear at a local college amid a storm of protest by parents, teachers, even some students...
Hang on. I need to get a pen. Um, for E.J. to jot something down.
Jeff, did Snooki even know where Rutgers was? Or what? Or did she think she was being paid to attend a mall opening?
Posted by: Sue Ann Jaffarian | April 11, 2011 at 04:29 PM
Relatively sure they had someone drive her there, Sue Ann. And you know what--I don't think that girl's half as stupid as she wants you to think she is. Tasteless, sure. Shameless, goes without saying. Stupid? I'll bet not.
Posted by: Jeff Cohen | April 11, 2011 at 04:32 PM
Something about this post made me think you might be feeling a bit schizophrenic. Wonder what that was. . .
Posted by: Patty Andersen | April 11, 2011 at 07:40 PM
As far as I'm concerned, the biggest problem that Rutgers had with bringing Snooki to campus was the cost/benefit ratio. If a total of only 1,000 students got to attend one of the two "performances", each of those students essentially got free admission to a program that would otherwise have cost them $3,200 per ticket just in order to cover the cost of the "performer". In other words, too much money was spent for the benefit of way too few students. Common sense was completely absent - as a double alumna of the graduate school, I am both embarrassed and appalled.
Posted by: Dale Spindel | April 12, 2011 at 08:45 PM
Actually, that would be $32 per ticket...
Posted by: Jeff Cohen | April 12, 2011 at 10:05 PM
Honest, I really used to be good at math, so this is extremely embarrassing. As Emily Litella would say, never mind...
Posted by: Dale Spindel | April 16, 2011 at 12:52 AM