FEATURE

Vinny Nocera made $300 for being on MTV and acting like, as their Web site says, “a foul breed of douche.”  The 23-year-old starred in an episode of Is She Really Going Out With Him?, a show that documents the bad relationships between cocky college guys and their girlfriends.

Nocera, a University of Central Florida graduate with a degree in accounting who is seeking a second degree in finance at FAU, and Kristy Meyer, his co-star and girlfriend on the show, weren’t actually dating at the time of filming.

“We dated two years ago. It was long-distance for almost a year, and it wasn’t working out. He moved back down here, and we’ve been really good friends,” said Meyer, a junior hospitality major.

Nocera and Meyer’s MTV appearance happened by chance. Nocera and his friends were at The Cove, a bar in Deerfield Beach, where a casting scout approached his friend.

 “She gave him a card and was going to walk away. I [went] to her and [said], ‘I want to be on this show.’ She [said], ‘Honestly, you’re not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for huge guys with tattoos.’  I [told] her to talk to my little brother Nino. I turn around, throw her to Nino, and she falls in love,” Nocera said. After that, Meyer, Nocera and Nino, a junior majoring in hospitality, interviewed for the show.

Meyer agreed to do the interview with Nocera back in September, assuming their MTV fame would end at that. Soon, though, she and Nocera were casted for an episode.

Nocera, Meyer, their close friends and an MTV crew of 20 spent a weekend in November filming the show. Nocera and Meyer were paid $100 for each day of filming, along with free food and the designer clothes they wore in their episode.

“We filmed for three days, 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m.; we went straight through every day. It was pretty exhausting because they were long days. We’d get in a van, and they’d take us to random locations we’d never been to before,” Meyer said.

In addition to their long filming days, Meyer and Nocera said a lot of the episode was staged. Key events within the show, like the interruption of Meyer’s sorority lunch by Nocera’s friends, weren’t authentic, according to the two. (See the end of the story for a link to the episode.)

Meyer also said that her becoming upset on the show wasn’t how she’d normally react to Nocera’s actions.

“I’m friends with all the guys that are in the show, so I don’t take the stuff they do personally. I just think they’re funny,” Meyer said. “I don’t get mad easily, and the episode showed me coming off to be a little bit bitchy. That’s not the way I am.”

The show mainly portrays Nocera acting like, as MTV describes, a douchebag and Meyer reacting to his actions. Nocera said that, during filming, the producers would urge him to get “cockier.”

“A lot of what you see on TV is fake. Every scene that you saw was set up by MTV. Everything was staged, but the quotes we said were real,” Nocera said.

Nocera insisted that they weren’t on the show to be douchebags, but to be funny.

“My goal was to have an episode where I was funnier than the narrator; so funny that the narrator didn’t really have anything bad to say. That was my whole goal, to be funny,” he said.

According to Nino Nocera, that humor has brought them some fame. He said that they’ve filmed pilot episodes for a show called Booze Cruise that’s supposed to air on Tru TV.

Meyer has seen some fame as well.

“I was in Mexico over spring break, and it was really random. I was at one of the clubs, and a group of guys came up and were like, ‘Oh my gosh! You’re that girl from MTV,'” Meyer said. She isn’t too fond of the limelight, though, and she said that her appearance on Is She Really Going Out With Him? will be the extent of her fame.

Nocera, on the other hand, has plans to become a reality show celebrity. He’s auditioning for a South Beach version of Jersey Shore in April.

“I’m hoping to be the next Snooki, but a guy,” Nocera said.

To watch their episode of Is She Really Going Out With Him?, go to:  www.ow.ly/1rnL1.