Harvard Seniors Get Real...Sort Of
It’s Saturday. Anxious preteens and closet fanatics alike crowd the rear of the Harvard Square Sprint Store, eagerly anticipating the arrival of MTV Real World cast members Ace, from the Paris season, and Cameran and Randy, of the currently running San Diego season. Representatives from JAMN 94.5 provide a festive hip hop background and an equally festive aesthetic background with their matching red t-shirts and gelled hair. The stage is set.
As the fans wait, Sprint Sales associates strategically wield their latest “got-to-have” product: the Sanyo VM 4500, a color camera flip-phone with a built in camcorder feature. David M. Baesler, vice president of sales for Sanyo US, has made a special trip to Cambridge in order to extol the virtues of Sanyo camera-phones to hungry Real World fanatics, as well as FM. “Camera phones have started to take over in the U.S.,” Baesler boasts.
The Real World promotional event seeks to supplement Sprint’s current advertising campaign with a hip, young edge. All eyes are on the dubious celebrities, taking in Cameran’s sparkling trademark smile and South Carolina drawl, Ace’s complacent, sweatshirt-clad ease and Randy’s infectious exuberance.
Despite living the preteen dream, the cast members grow restless. In between chatting up devoted fans, Randy doodles beards and breasts on promotional pictures of fellow cast members. Cameran gets up close and personal with a poster of Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady from the JAMN 94.5 table. “Children, children behave,” Craig Goldstein, a promotional consultant for the event from Universal Consulting Group, sternly warns.
However, what is little more than a routine stop for these seasoned media entities is, to adoring civilians, like, the apex of human existence. A number of Harvardians, students and otherwise, clamor to have their Sprint PCS promotional fliers autographed by the cast members.
“I have watched the show since I was 12 years old. It has changed my life forever,” Winthrop resident tutor Michael C. Ranen exclaims. Erik A. Berg ’07 and Daniel C. Brown ’07 are particularly interested in Cameran. “Cameran’s my favorite of all time,” Brown says. Lauren N. Westbrook ’07 discusses the merits of Harvard boys with the starlet. “I originally thought all of the Harvard boys would be really nerdy, but I was surprised last year when I came to visit,” Westbrook recalls. “Girl, that is so hot,” Cameran replies, her endearing southern accent in full force.
Watching the action, Kay Lee ’07 has doubts as to the ‘real’ aspect of the Real World. “I think it’s fun to watch, just like college life. I would like to think it’s true,” she says.
Fans bide their waiting time by entering to win Sprint phones, MTV memorabilia, and a dinner with the cast members later that evening at Brother Jimmy’s. For the dinner, Emily W. Porter ’04 is chosen out an overflowing box of contest entries. The Burberry-clad Harvard senior is visibly surprised. “Honestly, I just came here with my friend. I am very shocked,” Porter says. “Free food is always good. They better pay well with all those endorsements.”
Just another night with celebs
In the evening, long after the Sprint event is packed up and boxed away, Porter, accompanied by friend Nell A. Hanlon '03-'04, also a Crimson editor, join Ace, Cameran and an entourage of Universal consultants at Brother Jimmy’s for an evening of southern comfort food and an abundant wellspring of Sam Adams. Hanlon’s mother has prepared her with advice prior to the dinner. “[My mother] told me that I didn’t have to act stupid and she also told me to make sure to wash my hands. I have no idea why she said that,” she says. The two Harvard seniors are seated at the end of a long, upstairs table, enjoying sporadic interactions with cast members who are frequently interrupted by cell phone calls. With country music blaring behind him, Ace recounts his Irish bar stories and his exploits as a restaurateur. “They can drink Guinness and tequila like nothing,” he says of the Irish.
Ace, a Georgia native, and Cameran, a South Carolina native, engage in a contest of accents. “I do not sound more country than you,” Cameran asserts. The cast members and Harvard seniors challenge the Universal consultants to a contest: who can finish their swamp bowl first. Ultimately, according to Hanlon, the event was “just another day hanging with celebs.” Porter adds, “They are pretty normal people. They ask you about Harvard like anyone else.” An hour and a half late, Randy stumbles into the restaurant, much to the chagrin of the promotional consultants. He makes few attempts to talk to the seniors, immediately claiming a seat at the opposite end of the table and proceeding to dive into Brother Jimmy’s succulent baby-back ribs.
Porter finds the dynamic with the cast members slightly staged. “Does MTV own them [the cast members]?” she asks. Regardless, at the end of the dinner, Porter and Hanlon agree that the evening has been worthwhile. “Free food, free beer—it’s never a bad thing,” Porter says.