WITH “Gossip Girl” on summer vacation, Bravo’s hoping that people will tune into “NYC Prep” to get their vicarious fill of rich kid antics.
The real-life take on the fictional series follows six pint-sized, self-styled princes and princesses of the Upper East and West Side as they swan about the city leading their fabulous and fascinating lives.
The premiere episode, airing June 23, kicks off by introducing each of the kids – aged 15 to 18 – while expounding on the importance of being rich and worrying about their social standing. In many respects, the show is a teenaged version of “The Real Housewives of New York,” without Jill Zarin’s accent. The kids – clearly striving to be what producers call “mini-adults” – do what the Housewives do. They traipse around the city. They carry shopping bags. They attend fashion parties, They nurse grudges. They gossip over meals at swanky restaurants. They imagine people are in love with them. And they throw hissyfits when they feel like they’re being ignored or disrespected.
One thing, though: They don’t go to school. The only occasions in which education gets mentioned happen during passing references to getting into college, taking the SATs and one scene in which a girl constantly checks her BlackBerry while reading a textbook.
Parents are mostly no-shows. Only three appear on camera. Marci, mother Taylor DiGiovanni, coming off as a concerned divorcee who has the temerity to ask her daughter who she is texting and who she is hanging out with. The mother of 17 year-old Camille wants her child to figure everything out now. The absentee parents of 16-year-old Kelli and her brother join them for a Chinese takeout dinner, before leaving heading out to the Hamptons where they ordinarily live.
Consequently, the series comes off less like the wild and crazy antics of the “Gossip Girl” set and more like a kiddie version of “The Real Housewives of New York,” in which absolutely nothing significant happens, complete with a stereotypical cast of characters.
Confident junior Camille is the obvious the “smart one” who does well test on her SAT and has planned out her life, starting with matriculating from Harvard, becoming the business head of a genetics firm and, by the time she’s 40, having a husband and two daughters.
Pretty and petite sophomore Kelli, an aspiring singer, is the rich version of a latchkey kid. Her parents only drop in once a week to make sure that she and her brother are doing their homework and cleaning up after themselves. She admits to being grounded a lot – not that her parents aren’t around to enforce the grounding.
Taylor, a sophomore and the only public school kid represented, is all sweetness and light, except for the fact that she’s clearly obsessed with her social standing, to the point of feeling the need to throw a status-enhancing “party” at Japonais.
Sophomore Sebastian, 16, is the “stud” of the group, seemingly only concerned with the number of girls he can hook up with at any given time. He’s also the guy that the girls have started fighting over. Although he meets Kelli first and goes shopping with her in the meatpacking district, Sebastian goes on a flirty dinner with another girl, where he speaks French to show off, and catches Taylor’s eye at a party.
As a senior, 17-year-old Jessica is a wannabe fashionista, eager to enter the real world by getting a fashion or publicity internship. In the meantime, she’s an Operation Smile junior committee chair. Unwilling to expand her social circle, she’s frosty with everyone, except her ex-boyfriend, PC.
Another senior, 18-year-old PC, seems to be doing his best to worship at the altar of notorious “Gossip Girl” rake Chuck Bass. He has no problems lording his experience over the younger kids or saying that Kelli and Camille are “like little f- – – – – – young bitches that have no idea what they’re talking about.” He’s also the type of guy who wears a suit, tie and pocket square to a restaurant in the middle of the day.
The attitude of the “NYC Prep” kids can be summed up in one of PC’s eloquent phrases: “If my biggest problem this week is that my tux wasn’t tight enough, that’s a good week.”
NYC PREP
Tuesday, 10 p.m., Bravo
“NYC PREP” DISHONOR ROLL
Peter “PC” Peterson, 19
Prep school: Dwight (graduated this year)
Residence: Upper East Side
Extracurricular activities: Art and fashion photography, sports (ice hockey, tennis, golf and soccer).
Known for: His wardrobe. The suit matches the tie and pocket square.
In love with: Himself
Level of wealth: Grandson of billionaire investor Pete Peterson
He said: “I’m kind of done with the high school crowd. It gets kind of dry after a while.”
Jessie Leavitt, 17
Prep school: Dwight (graduated this year)
School rep: Dumb White Idiots Getting High Together
Residence: Upper East Side
Extracurricular activities: Parties, vintage clothing stores, student chair of the “Operation Smile,” a charity for cleft palates. Still in love with: Ex-boyfriend P.C.
She said: “I treat my clothing like my children. You don’t wear all your labels at once. And I think it’s really important to mix and match.”
Kelli Tomashoff, 17
Prep school: Birch Wathen Lenox
Residence: Upper East Side
Extracurricular activities: High-end restaurants, jumpstarting her singing career and raising money for cerebral palsy (her older sister has the disease).
Known for: Recently moving to Manhattan from the Hamptons, sharing an apartment with her brother while their parents stay in the Hamptons.
She said: “Sebastian? Yeah, he’s cute. He’s a really nice kid. He’s good-looking.”
Sebastian Oppenheim, 16
Prep school: The Ross School
Residence: Upper East Side
Extracurricular activities: Soccer, tennis, debate, school newspaper, ocean life guarding and romancing as many girls as possible.
Known for: His surfer hairstyle, hitting the town with his wingman, Gabe, and using French to dazzle future female conquests.
He said: “I’d rather hook up with as many girls as I want. Knowing French is a huge plus. Girls really like it.”
Camille Hughes, 16
Prep school: Nightingale-Bamford School
Residence: Upper West Side
Extracurricular activities: Studying for a perfect SAT score (she’s dreaming of getting into Harvard), lacrosse, debate team and boyfriend hunting.
Known for: Sharp tongue and love of partying at all the hottest clubs in town.
She said: “My family very wealthy, yet we’re not multi-billionaires. We’re definitely in the top one percent. I don’t want to apologize for having money. It’s good.”
Taylor DiGiovanni, 15
Public school: Stuyvesant HighResidence: Upper West Side
Extracurricular activities: Gymnastics, roller hockey and dance.
Known for: Social climbing and joking about scoring a rich husband.
She said: “I’m having a party because it’s important to be perceived to have, like, status and money because, you know, it changes how people think about you and how they talk to you.”
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