The ultimate battle of he-said, she-said continues on Jersey Shore.
When the MTV cast first arrived in Florence, Italy last year, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino bragged to Ronnie Ortiz-Magro that he "kind of had sex" with Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi. Though Polizzi denies it, Ortiz-Magro backs up his pal, but thinks Sorrentino only bragged about the hookup "for attention."
"I know from experience: Anything you say or do is going to come out, so you know what you're doing. With the whole Mike and Snooki [hookup] thing, I feel like Mike did it just to get attention," Ortiz-Magro, 25, told Us Weekly during a recent visit to our New York City headquarters to promote Jersey Shore's January 5 premiere. "I think they hooked up, because you only get that mad and flip out that much when you're guilty."
Currently dating Jionni LaValle, Polizzi, 23, confronted Sorrentino, 29, about the alleged hookup. "You're telling everyone that I cheated on Jionni with you. I don't like you, I don't want to be friends with you, and I can't even look at you right now," she fumed in one episode. Their angry spat later played out over several episodes and became one of season 4's most prominent shorelines.
Now that the gang has relocated from Florence to Seaside Heights, N.J., Ortiz-Magro argues that the cast is much more at ease.
"It may seem like we were ungrateful [for the experience in Italy], but we were just out of our element," he said. "We couldn't go to the gym or go tanning. Everything wasn't convenient to us. In Jersey, everything we want is right there."
In Sorrentino's case, Ortiz-Magro hopes viewers will see the progress he's made in mending friendships with his roommates.
"In Italy, Mike looked like such a bad guy and in Jersey, he put a little more effort into fixing those burnt bridges," Ortiz-Magro tells Us. "I always knew Mike was an instigator — everyone thought I was crazy! — but he's the crazy one. Everyone saw he was a villain, but hopefully [this season viewers] see he's a pretty good guy."
For more from Ortiz-Magro — including his thoughts on doing a sixth season — check out the exclusive video above before Jersey Shore premieres Thursday at 10 p.m. (EST) on MTV.
