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Arts & Entertainment

Lights Plus Cameras Equals Drama

When the cameras aren't rolling, Green Brook's Gatsby Salon is all business.

For one hour each week, Green Brook's Gatsby Salon is riddled with big hair, big fashion, big attitudes and big drama.

But that's just the part the 32-year-old salon plays on the Style Network show "Jerseylicious."

There's a giant difference between what viewers see on television and how the salon actually runs, however—most of the spats seen on the show would not be permitted during the normal working hours.

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"For TV, we specialize in drama," said Christy Pereira, a Bridgewater resident, salon manager and owner Gayle Giacomo's daughter. "But for real life, we specialize in our trade."

"If there's a fight that happens in our salon, do I let it go on?" she added. "Absolutely not. Do my girls know better than to even start anything on the floor? Yes."

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But animosity between stylist Tracy DiMarco and makeup artist Olivia Sharpe is real, Pereira said. The two do not like each other in real life, and for the purposes of television, in-salon spats are permitted for only a few minutes because of the cameras, she said.

"We do allow it to go on for a few minutes when the cameras are there," she said. "If we didn't, there would be nothing for you to watch. In real life, they are more professional and will be civil."

The drama, especially between the show's younger employees, is what draws people to the show, Pereira said. She does hope the salon operations and the more mature employees—including her, her mother and stylist Anthony Lombardi—draw some viewers to the show too, she added.

Several of the first season's plot lines continue into the second season, including tensions with makeup artist Alex Prisco's business, the Glam Fairy, questions about when Lombardi will leave the salon and the battles between DiMarco and Sharpe. But a new twist features Pereira prominently—when filming began, she was seven months pregnant with her first child.

"It's a lot of work to be working and filming while pregnant," she said. "I'm happy that I'm doing it because there's no better way to document it. It's going to pay off in the end for lots of different reasons."

The seven-member cast on the show are only a fraction of the salon's employees as well, she said. In addition to the stylists and makeup artists on the show, the salon has colorists, nail technicians, aestheticians and other services.

"They only film seven of us," Pereira said. "We have 40 more employees."

The salon's big break came through a family friend and former employee, according to Pereira. The friend knew a client who was looking for a salon for a reality series, and with the Gatsby undergoing renovations, Pereira and Giacomo wrote a salon biography, later netting an interview with producers.

The rest is reality-show history—after the eight-episode first season, the salon is slated for its current 20-episode second season.

"The first season, we were a little awkward, but now we're more used to it," Pereira said. "It's kind of like a big family now."

Though the second season began two weeks ago, the crew is still filming the final episodes, with the filming having started in July, Pereira said. The film crew is there only a few days each week, since the Gatsby is a business and clients don't always want to be on the show.

"On a Saturday, if you come into my salon, I'm packed," Pereira said. "I'm moving, I'm grooving. We are a really, really busy business. We're not able to show everything on TV."

The inability to show everything on the one-hour show garners some criticism of the salon and the cast, too. And, in the era of Jersey reality television where it's everything from drunken partiers on "Jersey Shore" to suburban wives on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," the show inevitably generates questions about how it reflects on the state itself.

"I'm born and raised here," Pereira said. "When I leave [the state], I can't wait to come back. I love it more than anywhere else in the whole world. I know my mom and I think we portray our state in the best possible way we can. I hope when people watch, they don't just see the drama, but they see the positives as well."

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