Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Pauly D’s Late, but Rock's Hamilton


Blame the hair.

When Pauly D, the fist-pumping DJ from MTV’s hit reality show Jersey Shore, finally showed up almost two hours late for his own event at the Hamilton Convention Centre Sunday night, his excuse was in character.

“Sorry I’m late Hamilton,” he told an agitated audience. “I was fixing my hair.”

Pauly D, whose full name is Pauly DelVecchio, is known for taking 25 minutes to do his gel-filled up do – which he calls the “blowout.”

When word got out he would be making an exclusive Ontario stop in Hamilton, about 1,200 people bought tickets for up to $61.75 to attend the event, which also featured three other DJs.

He was scheduled to play at 11:30 p.m. and do a meet-and-greet afterward with VIP ticketholders at about 1 a.m.

Instead, the gym-loving celebrity showed up at 1 a.m., played about 45 minutes and didn’t meet with fans, attendees said.

People started leaving half past midnight, said Michelle Bruno, who attended Sunday’s event. “People were getting upset and aggravated after the fact that it was getting to be 12:30. You saw a lot of people leaving at that time because they didn’t think he was going to show up,” she said.

But when he did show, the rest of the night turned out to be pretty fun, the 26-year-old said.

Members of the media were told ahead of time they would be given a couple minutes to speak with Pauly D but were told Sunday night that Pauly D’s manager did not want him speaking to the media.

The Jersey Shore star didn’t say much during his appearance, but he did drop some of his famous lines from the show, said Marco Fiore, who was a volunteer photographer for the event organizer, V3.

In addition to hollering, “Show me how you fist pump,” Pauly D ended the night with a kicker, Fiore said. “When he ended his set, he was like, ‘The cabs are here,’ in his little accent.”

V3 had been working with Pauly D’s booking manager for seven months before finally getting a confirmation from the celebrity right after the last day of shooting for Jersey Shore’s third season.

Dylan Davison said he admired Pauly D for his success with women on the show. The 18-year-old attended the event wearing a GTL T-shirt.

The men of Jersey Shore coined the term, which stands for their daily routine of gym, tanning and laundry – a practice Dylan says he now applies in his everyday life.

Girls decked out in clubwear and stilettos said they came out because Pauly D was their favourite character on the show, and the cutest.

Jersey Shore is a racy MTV reality series following the lives of young people living in the beach resort strip along New Jersey’s shoreline. The hit show is in its second season, but has received flack for its stereotypical depiction of Italian-Americans.

One mother at the Hamilton event had brought her daughter to the Pauly D party, but wasn’t sure about the show’s values. “Given my background as Italian, I find it kind of insulting,” said Ines Di Gasbarro. “I don’t want people to think this is typical of Italian youth … They’re just entertaining people.”

dawong@thespec.com

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