The Real World: New Orleans (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The Real World: New Orleans was the ninth season of MTV's popular reality television series The Real World, which focuses on seven diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. The New Orleans season first aired on MTV in 2000, with the cast living in a remodeled Civil War-era mansion, called The Belfort, in Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the second of four seasons to be filmed in the American South, the first being The Real World: Miami in 1996.

Assignment

Every season of The Real World, beginning with its fifth season, has included the assignment of a season-long group job or task to the housemates. The New Orleans cast was assigned to work at a New Orleans public access television station, with a different cast member acting as the producer of the segment every week.

Cast Members

Cast Member	Age	Hometown	Stats
Jamie Murray	22	Wilmette, Illinois	(b. October 27, 1977) He is a brother in the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. Kelley, Melissa and Julie all developed crushes on Murray at one point during the show, but only Julie managed to kiss him. Melissa developed the strongest attraction to him and flirted with him during the series, though he does not return the feelings beyond friendship. After the show, he appeared on more than one season of the spinoff Real World/Road Rules Challenge. He attended New Trier High School with Lindsay Brien from the Seattle season, though they barely interacted.
Matt Smith			He is a devout Catholic, and an avid fan of hip-hop music. Matt occasionally calls Julie out on her actions and says he has a male instinct to protect her. She developed feelings for him, but he did not reciprocate, even when she playfully kissed him on the day they left the house. Rumors regarding his sexuality ran rampant during the airing of the New Orleans season. Interest in this topic since then has faded. Smith currently lives with his wife Candyce in Mesa Arizona and works with the LIFE TEEN program.
Melissa Howard	23	Tampa, Florida	(b. February 12, 1977) Born in Okinawa, Japan) is a half African-American and half Filipino woman who was deemed the firecracker of the house and provided much drama and laughter. At one point, she believed that the cause of her unhappiness was depression. She was upset about her situation and sought medical help. After one episode, the issue was never brought up again. Melissa experienced a range of emotions throughout the show, including depression, and she channeled those emotions into painting after she befriended Lionel Milton, a popular New Orleans artist. She can currently be seen on the Oxygen channel's prank-show "Girls Behaving Badly".
Danny Roberts	23	Rockmart, Georgia	(b. July 19, 1977) He is gay, started dating Paul, a serviceman in the military. To protect Paul's identity during his visits, his face was blurred each time he appeared on camera. After his time in the military ended, Paul and Danny appeared together in an MTV special, with Paul's face no longer blurred. They moved together to Seattle, but broke up in early 2006. They were together for 7 years.
Kelley Limp	24	Fayetteville, Arkansas	(b. October 14, 1976) She is the sorority girl and the least visible of the show's members; she was dating a medical student named Peter and spent her time with him rather than in the house. In May 2004, she married actor Scott Wolf, best known for his role as 'Bailey Salinger' on the 1990s Fox show Party of Five.
Julie Stoffer	21	Provo, Utah	(b. July 11, 1979) She is a Mormon college student who was attending Brigham Young University, was worried about what the school would think of her, as she was living with men as well as women, in violation of the school's honor code. Her coming to terms with the world outside of her adoptive home state of Utah (she was raised in Wisconsin) and parents' upbringing provided much story throughout the season. Julie's strained relationship with her father was also a focal point of the show-- they have a very heated argument when her parents come to visit and her father blows her off as "just being emotional". She was later expelled from BYU for her stay in the house. She now works as a host on the video game themed G4 TV Channel.
David Broom	22	Chicago, Illinois	(b. October 19, 1977) He is an African-American singer. He has several sexual partners during the course of the season. He appears to be sensitive, and avoids conflict with his housemates, dismissing them when they attempt to resolve issues with him. David is most known for his original song "Come On, Be My Baby Tonight" which he later performed on the Comedy Central sketch comedy tv series, Chappelle's Show. Later during the season, he performed a rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at a sporting event attended by his housemates, and which brought Melissa to tears. He was also known for his extensive use of the phrase "woo woo" on the show. In 2004 Broom was busted by police during the early morning hours of February 11th after they caught him having oral sex with prostitute Liza Gorges.

Season Highlights

• The New Orleans cast was the first (and to date the only) cast to be featured on the cover of TV Guide, appearing on the June 24, 2000 edition.

• Discussions on race are a staple on The Real World. On a boat trip in Louisiana, the boat guide referred to a type of stork the group spotted as a "nigger stork". Melissa took offense to the comment and to the fact that Jamie was not as offended. After the show, it was revealed that the tour guide apologized to Melissa. In another discussion on race, Julie expressed that she was raised to cross the street if she saw a black person. After this, Melissa stated she was tired of talking about racism.

• During the cast's group trip to South Africa, Melissa and Julie learned about themselves and racial issues, but were upset that David again sequestered himself from the group, preferring to spend time with their African tour guides.

• In a crossover event with that season's Road Rules, (the sister series to The Real World), the Road Rules cast"s mission was to steal the mansion's toy robot dog. The housemates, recalling that the Road Rules team from years back had stolen the eight ball from the Miami cast"s pool table, hid their eight ball, not realizing that it was not the target.

Aftermath

• Melissa and Julie left the house as friends, but at some point later the friendship dissolved after disagreements regarding speaking engagements and monetary disputes. Melissa developed a deep animosity toward Julie, and made it clear by the time they appeared on the 2003 Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Battle of the Sexes that they were no longer friends. This argument continued onto MTV's website for the show and both girls' personal websites (Princess Melissa and Planet Julie), where both girls aired their side of the story.

• The mansion, which was purchased by Jim Perrier and his partner James Ashbee in 1995, needed total renovation after the cast left. The parts of the house used for the housemates was actually just a set inside the huge mansion. The kitchen, for example, was placed where one of the massive greatrooms exist today. It was in a period of renovations for several years after filming ended, and the white facade has been changed to beige. The plaque "Belfort" has been removed from the door trim.

• New Orleans' Lower Garden District, where the house is located, experienced minimal flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The Belfort received only a few broken windows as a result.

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