November 1, 2001
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago may not have the
cast of "The Real World" to kick around for much longer. Rumor has it the
show will wrap up on Monday--three weeks earlier than originally planned.
But one source close to
the show isn't so sure. "[One of the cast members] was talking about how
he had another month of shooting to go and how he couldn't wait until it
was all over," this source says.
And just when the kids were
getting good at ditching the producers and crew.
The other day, one of the
blond girls tricked the camera crew by pretending to go into the General
Cinema theater at Western and Fullerton. Shooting isn't allowed in the
theater, so the behind-the-scenes folks stepped into Potbelly to get a
bite to eat. Just as they were getting into their sandwiches, the cast
member pulled a Forrest Gump and ran far away from them. They never caught
up with her that night.
No word on if she was reprimanded
for ducking her "Real World" duties.
Not that Chris cares. He
figured out a while ago that he could outmaneuver the cameras by biking
his way to solitude. On foot, crew members can't keep up with him. If they
drive, he just ducks into alleyways that they can't navigate.
This must thrill the Wicker
Park protesters. One of them had said early on he was there to help "liberate
the Real World kids." Seems they're doing a pretty decent job of this themselves.
The camera crew had another
run-in, this time with management at the Cheesecake Factory in the John
Hancock Center.
"The crew wanted to record
audio in the restaurant, and I guess that's not allowed there,"' says a
witness. "The Cheesecake people were saying they would sue 'The Real World'
if they didn't honor their wishes, and 'The Real World' was being sneaky
and filming it all like through the windows."
Adds another witness, Charles
Matthews, 26, of Andersonville, "I thought the whole thing was pretty funny.
I don't see what the big deal was. It's so noisy in that place that they
wouldn't have gotten a lot of the conversation anyhow. The kids seemed
all right to me. It's the crew that was annoying."
Back in their own 'hood,
the cast members feel safe within the confines of Digits, a Wicker Park
beauty salon literally across the street from their digs. Kyle is a regular
there, as is the curly-haired blond girl (who would like us all to know
that it is her own hair and not a wig, as a myopic tipster had suggested
in an earlier column).
The kids must not hold grudges.
Before they got jobs with the Chicago Park District, a couple of them applied
for jobs at Digits. None was selected to shampoo or coif do's.
And finally, remember that
Asian girl in the Chicago cast of "The Real World" whom I was supposed
to resemble? Well, not only do I not look like her, but there is no Asian
cast member, period, in the Chicago bunch. Bummer.
It seems a server at the
Local Grind, this cast's cafe of choice in Wicker Park, mistook Melissa--the
half Filipino, half African-American cast member from last season's New
Orleans cast--for a member of the Chicago Seven. Melissa arrived in Chicago
around the same time the Wicker Park kids did to tape a special for MTV.
Got a scoop about "The Real World" in Wicker Park? E-mail me at realworld@suntimes.com
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