New Jerseyites unite!
Real Housewives of New Jersey star Caroline Manzo is standing up for the cast of that other reality show set in her home state, MTV's Jersey Shore.
"They are young kids doing their thing," Manzo told UsMagazine.com of Snooki, "The Situation" and the gang during Wednesday's Bravo Upfronts at New York's Skylight Studios.
QUIZ: See if you can speak "Jersey"
Manzo, a married 50 year-old mom of three, isn't offended by the drunken hot-tub antics on the show, which takes place in Seaside Heights, about 2 hours south of her Franklin Lakes home. "Let them be kids and one day they'll just look at it and realize."
The Bravo star isn't worried that they give New Jersey a bad name, either. "They are not from Jersey so I don't care," she quipped. (Indeed, the MTV cast hails from Brooklyn, Staten Island and upstate New York.)
Still, "there are clusters of kids like that," Manzo told Us. "They are not hurting anybody. It's their image — nobody else's!"
The second season of Real Housewives of New Jersey is set to debut this June.
