Image Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images The rumors are true: The newest castmate on MTV’s Jersey Shore is besties with Snooki. In fact, that’s how Deena Nicole Cortese, 23-year-old former waitress from New Egypt, N.J., says she landed a spot on the reality TV sensation’s third season, currently filming in Seaside Heights, N.J. Read on for her thoughts on the show’s impact on the Jersey shore economy, the tentative nickname her roommates have cooked up for her, and her subliminal effort to introduce “down for the get down” into the national lexicon.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you get on the show? Was there an audition?
DEENA NICOLE CORTESE: Well, me and Nicole ["Snooki" Polizzi] have been friends for, like, two years now, and, you know, she needed a partner in crime, like, you know, on the show with her. She said she’s bored sometimes, and she was like, “You’re down on the shore all the time,” which I am, because I live 20 minutes from it. So I was like, “Yo, girl, I’m totally down to come with you. I’ll pack my bags. Let’s do this.”

So did she put you in touch with MTV?
She invited me.

And MTV said, “Come on board?”
Yup. They wanted her to have a partner in crime. [Giggles.]

How did you and Snooki first meet?
I met her through one of my good guy friends, and he was her boyfriend at the time.

You just hit it off right away?
It was like heaven meeting Snooki. She’s like my twin. We’re like two peas in a pod. [Giggles.] We’re both just, like, little fireballs, Energizer bunnies, you know? We’re just to party and ready to have a good time. READ FULL STORY »

Image Credit: MTVWho says they don’t make romantic comedies like they used to? Last night’s Jersey Shore gave us perhaps the most touching monologue since Julia Roberts delivered that old Notting Hill chestnut, “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” Indeed, after Ronnie and Sammi presumably spent the morning listening to Mary J. Blige’s “No More Drama” on repeat, the big lug got deep and shared thusly: “If we f****** love each other, then we f****** love each other, and that’s it. F****** work on the problems and we f****** grow from it. And if we can’t f****** grow from it, then we can’t be together, and it’s that simple.” But are those words of love, soft and tender, going to be enough to win a girl’s heart when she inevitably finds out about his three-way kiss with a couple of so-called “grenades”?

Not that deep down, Sammi doesn’t already know the score. READ FULL STORY »