February 26-March 3, 2004
cover story
Sticky Situation
 THIS OLD CHURCH: Word on the street has MTV's Real World soon to encamp at Third and Arch. Photo By: Michael T. Regan |
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It’s the secret everybody knows: MTV’s Real World is coming to Philly.
We heard the rumors. We read it in Icepack. We read it in Byko! But Bunim/Murray Productions, the company that makes the show, is not presently at liberty to confirm or deny that just yet. It’s kinda cute, really.
The taping supposedly begins in April, at least that was the case before BMP decided to re-configure the cast for a more dynamic chemistry. Renovations have begun on the Seamen's Church Institute at the corner of Third and Arch, but the people at Yaron Properties flatly deny everything. Yes, they own the place. No, MTV's not doing anything there.
The institute was established in 1843 to serve the spiritual needs of seagoing people. Most recently, the enormous stone banklike structure served as the hub for the 2003 Fringe Festival.
If Seamen's is actually the place, it will surely be the most prestigious loft seven strangers have ever stopped being polite and started getting real in. But when it was the Fringe HQ, it had just one bathroom, no kitchen and two large, scary vaults in the basement. (There is presently no hot tub on the premises.) Recently, crews have been showing up daily -- in small, unmarked cars -- to strip the walls and keep reporters out.
Pretty much everybody involved will have confidentiality agreements in their mouths, but CP did talk to one Queen Village resident whose spacious loft was in the running to host the show. Had they chosen his place, BMP would have paid for his relocation and storage for all his furniture. It would have been his choice to keep any renovations that had been made on the place or simply have it returned to the way it was.
In addition, he would have been paid at least $25,000 a month for the pleasure -- assuming he'd make more than the guy who owned the New Orleans Real World manse. That house, despite re-paintings and repeated attempts to return it to anonymity, is frequently visited by tourist buses and fence-climbing fans.
Seamen's sits across from Old City Pizza and that much-contested Starbucks. It's also right next to the site currently known as Betsy Ross' house. Some people say Ross never actually lived there. Regardless, that is almost certainly Ross' grave right next to The Real World. Anybody else smell a National Travesty?
Of course, the Yaron people could be telling the truth. There's another rumor going around that the place is going to be a Pottery Barn or a Crate and Barrel. In which case, never mind.
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