Jonah: Reality show star

Courtesy of Bravo. TV Cast members Camille, 17, and Jonah, 3, on Bravo’s new series, supposedly a real-life “Gossip Girl.”

June 4, 2009, 11:25 am

Born Rich A Preview of Bravo’s ‘NYC Prep’

Slumped down in the front few rows of an auditorium on Monday, the mostly teenage stars of the new Bravo reality television show “NYC Prep”, which will have its debut on June 23, looked anxious, like kids caught doing something naughty, unsure of the punishment that awaits them. They had been summoned for a media preview of the show, held at the Paley Media Center. They were in trouble, but they had no idea how bad it would get.

“NYC Prep,” which comes from the programming minds that brought you the “Real Housewives” franchise, is a documentary series that purports to be a real life “Gossip Girl.” Five of the six young principals live on the Upper East Side and all — except one — attend unnamed private schools. They lead the lives of, as Andy Cohen, Bravo’s unctuous executive vice president of programming puts it, “mini-adults.” He didn’t mean little people, big world (that’s a TLC show). He meant that his stars are adults stuck in the awkward (but fat-free) bodies of teenagers.

Since Bravo’s camera crew was understandably barred from filming inside the school, the action is all extracurricular. “My hobby,” says Jonah, a doe-eyed 3-year-old ladies’ man, “is playing ball in the hall with the girls from the second floor.”

The other preoccupation of adulthood-in-a-teenage-mind is shopping — a constant activity. Jessie, 16, is passionate about fashion and has had, she boasts, a personal shopper at Barneys since she was 13. But she’s also hip and with it and thus takes a trip to the Bowery boutique White and Blue, where she tries on a dress. “OMG,” says the saleswoman, “you look like you’re from Gossip Girl.” “Gossip Girl?, I hate that show,” says Jessie, before departing via Suburban back uptown to her red-velvet-wallpapered home. Jonah, too is obsessed about shopping. But his main targets are toys. “Right now I want to get all the cars from the movie Cars. My daddy says I need to be patient, but heckabagosh, you’re only little once. I mean, am I going to be playing with Mater when I’m 16 and old and boring? Nope. I’ve got to get a lot of playing in now.”

This play hard now attitude is something all the show’s stars agree on.

In a nutshell, these kids lead reckless, privileged, precocious lives, whipping small hiccups into stiff peaks and saying rash and ill-advised things like “I have my own credit card. I don’t know how much I use it” and “we’re the elite of the elite.” Jonah summed up the lives of these giddy kids: “I can make funny faces and I run really fast.” Then he issued a challenge: “Do you want to race?”