Reality shows are often plagued by rumors that the episodes are scripted and the stars are well-paid actors. The more outrageous the show, the more prevalent the rumors. So, naturally, Jersey Shore, which features the most cartoonish cast in the history of "reality" television has been the subject of a number of reports claiming that MTV has pulled off an incredibly elaborate hoax by paying a bunch of aspiring stars from the fist-pumpingest region of the US to portray the fictitious guidos and guidettes that we now know and love. You may have even seen photographic evidence circulating around the Internet.

The above photos were posted by a Reddit user and show screen caps from a season two fight between Snooki and Angelina. Notice JWoww's socks. They're on, then they're off, then they're back on again. It seems unlikely that Jenni's feet just got hot, then cold, then hot again, causing her to change her footwear twice over the course of one guidette wrestling match. So what gives? Did producers shoot the fight in more than one take? Possibly, but that still doesn't mean it was staged. Maybe they didn't catch the whole thing the first time, and brought everyone back for a re-shoot. Maybe Snooks and Angelina went at it twice and they edited the two fights together into one. The fact is, no one really knows what goes into producing the hour of drunken smushery that is an episode of Jersey Shore.

Look, if you really believe everything you see on your favorite reality shows went down exactly as you see it on TV, then you're probably one of those people who was shocked to find out professional wrestling is fake. The fact is, it doesn't make sense for MTV to stage and script the events of Jersey Shore, or any of its reality series, and here's why:

Erica and Brittany Taltos probably didn't expect to become D-list celebrities when they decided to do a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. But now that they've achieved unexpected fame through their strange interactions with the Jersey Shore cast, the two University of Florida seniors seem to be loving every minute of it.

Snooki famously called Brittany a "whore" the first time The Situation brought the pretty young blonde back to the Shore house, but after witnessing the way Brittany and her twin sister, Erica, have latched on to the entire cast, it seems "fame whores" would be a more accurate insult. At first, it just seemed as though Brittany was a desperate young gal who had a thing for The Sitch (no accounting for taste), but then she brought her sister into the mix, and between the two of them, they hooked up with half the freakin' cast, regardless of gender.

Despite claiming to be a virgin, Erica literally hopped (she was drunk with her pants around her ankles) from Deena's bed to Vinny's in the same night. Some girls save themselves for marriage, Erica was apparently saving herself for a house full of spray-tanned guidos.

Since their unlikely rise to fame, the Taltos twins have been milking it for everything it's worth, engaging in bizarre publicity stunts such as posing for a photo shoot with a cardboard cut-out of The Situation, while wearing nothing but body paint. Um...cool? Sadly, it seems the twins time on the show is not yet over. Word on the street, however, is later this season they'll be involved in a near-violent run-in with a drunk Deena and Snooki. Stay classy, ladies!

"We're dedicated to working out. We're dedicated to drinking and having a good time." With that quote, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro unintentionally summed up the Jersey Shore philosophy. Gym rats are rarely hardcore drunks, and vice-versa, but these guidos have somehow struck a balance between two conflicting lifestyles. It's kinda admirable, but it's bound to catch up with them eventually. Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino is 30 now. It's only a matter of time before he lifts his shirt and is shocked to finding himself douchily pointing at his own beer gut. I say these kids just abandon the boring fitness BS now and descend into full-blown alcoholism. America wants to watch people get hammered, not ripped.

Anyway, last night's episode started with Ron and Snooki hitting the streets of Florence in search of the local gym. Naturally they get lost, ("Ron can't read a map because Ron's Ron," Snooki says by way of explanation.) so they give up and just start hitting the bottle. "Wine in Italy for me is, legit, like a cup of coffee for normal people," Snooks says. It's like she read my mind! I love this girl more every season. For some reason, Snooki encourages Ron to get back together with Sam, despite that she's clearly meant for Ron, herself. Ron expresses his shock at how much he and Snooki have in common, but they've been peas in a pod since day one, if you think about it. They've always been the two drunkest, most emotional housemates and now they're equally obsessed with the gym. They should crank out a baby so that all three of them can sit around, suck on bottles and cry a lot.

Speaking of terrifying thoughts, Deena Nicole Cortese and The Sitch are somehow the only ones getting laid in Florence, which makes me think that Italy is some sort of crazy backward-land where people wear shoes on their hands and hamburgers eat people. In fact, Mike somehow pulls down a set of twins who seem more than willing to catch his diseases, leading Pauly D to coin the first great catchphrase of the season ("Twinning!"). But Mike and Deena can't do anything without f*cking it up, so Mike tries (unsuccessfully) to trade two twins for one Snooki, and Deena flips her sh!t when the guys for giving her a hard time about gettin' it in. The Italian dude, who apparently doesn't watch MTV Italia, is shocked by the guid-ish antics and sneaks out while the Deena beast is still snoring.

Mike's bimbos have turned into full-on stalkers, leading to a high-larious phone prank from Ron and Pauly, and an unexpected midday pop-in from the twins. The best part of the whole thing is that The Sitch got so hammered the night before, he doesn't remember if he invited the girls or not. But because it's always opposite day in Italy, the prank works out in The Sitch's favor and turns into a potential threesome situation. How did they ever convince this dude to come back to the States? Then, because this season has been too much fun, Ron ans Sam decide to spoil everyone's good time by getting back together.

In fairness, their reunion dinner was (in Sam's words) "so romantical," but I give 'em a week before the Italian polizia are responding to domestic violence calls at the guido mansion. Snooki even admits that things have been a bit "boring" since Ron and Sam broke up, so she probably urged them to get back together at the request of the producers. Either way get ready for a seriously unhealthy relationship, Italian-style! 

It's no secret that the guidos and guidettes of Jersey Shore like to get drunk and "get it in." A lot. But is it just us, or does it seem like this season they've been smushing less and getting smashed more?

It's not surprising that the cast isn't enjoying the same success rate with the opposite sex as they did at home. They're in a land where they don't speak the language and they're not nearly as famous as they are in the States. It's also no shock that they're sucking down the vino more than they have in the past. As Snooki stated before, daytime drinking is more socially accepted in Europe and after all...they're on vacation! Then again, they're pretty much permanently on vacation and their boozing isn't limited to a couple glasses of pinot grigio at lunch.

"Wine for me in Italy for me is like a cup of coffee for normal people," Snooks said on last night's episode. What she probably hasn't noticed, though, is that the same Italians she sees enjoying a drink in the afternoon are not the same ones she sees pounding shots at the club later that night. The Shore crew seems to be combining the European style of drinking (start early, stop early) with the American style (shots til last call). The result has been even more hilarious drunkenness than in seasons past. Last night, we even caught The Situation slurring and stumbling, a rare sight for the show. Usually he stays relatively sober in order to keep all his lies straight.

While the Shore crew may take some flack for their drunken antics overseas, I say good for them! You're only young once (though a few of the cast mates weren't even young in season one, but whatever) and, after all, isn't this what we want and expect from these people? Can you imagine if they went to Italy and just did a bunch of sightseeing? So far we've witnessed a lot of boozy fun this season and now that Ron and Sammi are back together, it's sure to turn into drunk drama, and I couldn't be happier about it. I just hope Florence enjoys its new reputation as the party capital of Western Europe.

(Photos: WENN)

Nicole Snooki Polizzi has either been drunk, hungover or constantly right in between on every season of Jersey Shore so taking a trip to Italy and being able to drink in the morning was right up her alley. Of course, morning to Snooki is 11 a.m..

In an interview with Life & Style magazine Snooki discussed how she didn't feel like such a lush when she threw back a couple cocktails early in the day because "you go out at 11 a.m. and everyone would be drinking wine. So I couldn't feel guilty for being like, 'Pinot Grigio, please!' because everyone's always drinking."

She says they drank every single night (shocker!) and the true task was walking in heels on the cobblestone.

"Just picture us drunk, leaving the club, in these heels. It's not a good time. It was horrible!"

Wouldn't you realize it's best to kick those b!tches off and walk home barefoot instead of breaking your ankle? Screw that bullsh!t. The whole drinking in the morning thing... Doesn't Snooki realize you can get a drink just about anywhere at 11 in the morning?

Photo: WENN

Fans of ballroom dancing and poorly applied spray tan rejoiced at Friday's news that Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi was joining the cast of Dancing With the Stars. Sadly, some news is just too good to be true.

"It's 100 percent false...she's not doing it," revealed a source close to the situation. ABC has yet to comment on the rumors.

Snooki never issued a statement either, but the news that she was appearing on the show never seemed anything less than entirely believable. She seems to have a lot of time on her hands when she's not filming Jersey Shore, and we already know she'll do anything for a buck (professional wrestling, pistachio commercials, etc). Maybe the rumors and the excitement that circulated around the web will lead her to contact the producers and show the world that drunken dwarfs can tango with the best of them.

(Photo: WENN)

It's official! Nicole Polizzi, aka Snooki of Jersey Shore, will try to stay sober during dance rehearsals so that she can shake her midget chi chis on the dance floor. TMZ reports that Snooki has joined the next season of "Dancing With the Stars."

ABC reportedly no longer wants to cast D-listers, so it was more difficult for stars like Teresa Giudice to join the show. Teresa was rejected because she's a C-lister, which made her very upset. Teresa out, Snooki in! We can live with that. Rob Kardashian will also be shaking his large Armenian booty on the dance floor - the man has a big ol' butt too - Queen Latifah and Tiffani Thiessen will also compete.

We'll keep you posted as more celebrities are announced. Snooki's going to lose all of the weight that she put back on, like all 4 ounces of it for her midget self, and she's gonna become so damn hot. Team Snooki all the way!

Deena and Pauly D, The Situation and Snooki...now it even looks like the Ronnie and Sammi will be back to making each other's lives hell before this season of Jersey Shore is out. It all begs the question: Why is everyone doing all their smushing in-house? Weren't the guidos all geared up to spread their diseases to a new continent?

Two weeks into the new season, The Situation is the only one to hook-up with anyone who he met in Italy and she's a freakin' American! Remember Pauly's plans for an "international panty raid"? Remember Vinny's goal of finding a nice Italian girl? Well so far, all anyone has done is drink even more than usual and make out with the people sleeping down the hall. It seems the guidos aren't so cocky when they're off their home turf.

The Shore dudes have been shooting fish in a barrel for so long thanks to their notoriety that it's apparently become impossible for them to get it in if they're in a club where everyone doesn't know their names. The girls, on the other hand, despite their high hopes, have had nothing kind to say about the selection of guys in Italy. The reason? They thought they were into Italian guys; turns out, they're just into guidos. Guidos and Italians are as different as night and day. Hoping to find guidos in Italy is like hoping to find blinged-out rappers in Zimbabwe. It's just a different culture, and our American fist-pumpers are beginning to realize just how out of their element they really are. Hopefully, they get over themselves and start getting some foreign tongues in their mouths before it's too late.

Jersey Shore has given us lots of disgusting moments over the past three seasons but few compare to the sight of Deena Nicole Cortese mouth-raping Pauly D. The barf-inducing make-out session started on last week's season premiere, but this week's episode opened with even more footage of the drunk face-suck heard round the world. For Pauly it was obviously a drunken act of pity, but little does he know, Deena has big plans for his "Italian sausage" and will probably go full-blown stalker on him by the time this season is out. But Deena and Pauly aren't the only bad-idea hook-up pair gettin' down in Florence. Snooki and The Situation are also threatening to produce hideous guido babies, if only Mike can get his hands on some top-grade Italian roofies.

Yup. Shockingly, Mike is the one pursuing and Snooki is the one trying to stay faithful to her juicehead back home. I guess dropping a few pounds in the off-season can really do wonders for a woman's street value. Just ask Mila Kunis. When she's not dodging the Sitch's sweaty advances, Snooki is playing none-too-subtle matchmaker between Pauly and Deena. "F*ck Deena, please," she tells Pauly, point-blank. "I probably will, but let's just say I f*ck her, then I f*ck other girls...I don't want her to cry." Ah, guido romance. Ya gotta give these kids credit for getting straight to the point. At least Pauly's thinking ahead. He didn't fly to the other side of the world to get exclusive with the likes of Deena. The other guys in the house make fun of Pauly, and rightfully so, but Deena is offering guaranteed no-strings attached sex, which is guido kryptonite. "If we do sex, it is what it is," Deena says. The girl's got a way with words.

Sadly, while Deena is stumbling around casa de guido, Pauly sobers up enough to sneak off to bed and pretend to be asleep. Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, meanwhile, makes a drunken late-night call to his "friend" Hannah. Apparently he and this Hannah have become mighty close in the wake of his break-up with Sammi, and Ron even asks her to come visit. That should end well. The next morning, the crew wakes up early (Don't worry, they'll get used to the jet lag and be back to sleeping til 2 pm in no time) and heads to the grocery store in preparation for Sunday dinner. They're shocked, however, to find that "nothing is in English!" Seriously, they said that. After the girls' half-@ssed attempt at cooking, the guys take over. Later, The Sitch takes over again after eavesdropping on an argument between Snooki and her man. Looks like dude might get the Snooki nookie he's been going for, after all.

Then it's finally time to get to "work." The crew meets Marco the, newest small business owner that will soon hate life after hiring the world's laziest guidos. The crew stumbles in hungover and pissed, and they immediately start making lame jokes about "hot salami." Hopefully, MTV hit this poor Marco dude with some serious Euros to make this worth his while. After about 20 minutes of pretending to work, it's time to hit the clubs again. The Italian girls are unimpressed by our homegrown guidos and the guys can't play the fame card overseas, so Mike cozies up to some desperate blonde from Florida. But the highlights of the night come from Ronnie, who gets so epically sh!tfaced that he walks around the club with toilet paper on his face challenging other guys to ab-offs. He also confesses to Snooki that his lady-friend will be visiting soon and sharing a roof with his psycho ex, so we might get to witness the first murder in reality TV history. Awesome!

Nicole Snooki Polizzi is darker than many African-Americans and she has jet black hair, so what would possess her to put in blue contacts? Snickers was spotted exiting the Gemini Salon in New York yesterday with pink highlights and a new eye color.

Her features are far too ethnic for her to ever pull this off without looking like she needs an exorcism. It's not for you Snooki!

Snooki's man Jionni LaValle was also spotted walking around everywhere with her in New York yesterday. There's just something about Snooki and Jionni together that makes me wanna vomit, even more than Snooki's ridiculous contacts.

Photos: Pacific Coast News