The Style Channel is about to make another foray into the “making North Jersey look like an alien planet” genre a la Jersey Shore and Real Housewives of New Jersey, with the new show Jerseylicious.

But just like Jersey Shore (which visited A.C.), it looks like the cast took a trip down the Parkway and visited Cape May, which you can see in this first look at the new show.

E! Online is promising that the first episode of the show will be online Wednesday even though the show premieres Sunday at 10pm. Anyway, it’s a glimpse of what you miss when you stay south of the Raritan River your whole life.

Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik (right) in one of his two victories over Jermain Taylor

ESPN.com has reported that middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and junior middleweight titlist Sergio Martinez will face each other on April 17 in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. Although a contract has not yet been signed, the management for both fighters is in agreement on the bout, with a press conference expected to take place in New York sometime after the Winter Olympics.

This bout will headline a new “World Championship Boxing” event on HBO, with super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute scheduled to defend his belt against Edison Miranda at the Bell Centre in Montreal before the main event.

Pavlik (36-1, 32 KOs) won both the WBC and WBO middleweight belts in September 2007 at Boardwalk Hall by knocking out Jermain Taylor in the seventh round. He later defeated Taylor again by majority decision. The Martinez fight will mark Pavlik’s fourth title defense, with his last bout ending in a fifth-round knockout of Miguel Espino on Dec. 19.

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Captain Phil Harris

Ask any of the hundreds of fishermen who ply the waters around southern New Jersey and they’ll tell you straight out. There’s nothing glamorous about fishing. It’s hard, backbreaking work and the sea can turn on you — and end you — at any moment. And most decidedly, fishermen don’t get fame and glory.

But that wasn’t true of Phil Harris, one of the stars of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, who passed away Tuesday night after suffering a stroke late last month. It was old salts like Captain Phil that kept the show about crab fishing off Alaska popular year after year, because really, the fishing itself never changed much from season to season.

The 53-year-old, blunt-talking, chain-smoking Harris was the epitome of what a crab boat captain should be — a hard taskmaster with a passion for his job who could surprise you once in awhile with the depth of emotion he felt for his life’s work and his two sons who fished along side him (though he’d never let them know it). He also cared profoundly for the safety of his crew and their livelihood. And he was wickedly funny; ready to play a prank on other captains when the challenge was issued.

Viewers of this season of Deadliest Catch will see Harris at the helm of the Cornelia Marie as about half the season was filmed before he fell ill. Though it’s unclear how the show will handle his death (cameras were rolling when he suffered the stroke), it’s no surprise that Harris was fishing when the stroke hit him.

“Of course, he was fishing all the way up to the end — he was such a special guy,” Paul Segal, president of the show’s production company told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re so concerned about the family and the crew right now that we haven’t stopped to think about how we’re going to deal with this. We’ll have to figure it out in the weeks and months ahead.”

Still, tributes to Harris have been rolling in and fans and fishermen everywhere are in mourning, all hoping that wherever Captain Phil is, he’s pulling in full pots on calm seas.

Season Six American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis, the Idol beat-boxing king, performed at Caesars’ Dusk on Friday night. Lewis performed songs off his new album Heartbreak In Vinyl in front of a packed house. Blake dined at Mia restaurant prior to his performance and sipped champagne with his fans late into the night at the nightclub.

Blake Lewis beat-boxing. (photo by Nick Valinote)

Steve Buscemi

In a recent interview on Movieline.com Steve Buscemi was asked about working on the HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, set in 1920s Atlantic City. Here is what he had to say.

“It was great to work with Scorsese, and that was a great appeal. But even if he were not part of it, it was Terence Winter, who was one of my favorite writers from The Sopranos, and Tim Van Patten also worked on The Sopranos as a writer/producer/director. But I just love that whole time period of the ’20s. I didn’t know much about Atlantic City in the ’20s, and it’s been great reading about it. All the characters are really rich, and the cast is amazing. It’s just a period of time in the country when prohibition ruled, women still didn’t have the vote, and before there were a lot of media, corruption was a lot more prevalent and accepted. A lot of people knew what was going on but didn’t care as long as they were being taken care of. And so I play a guy who does take care of people, cares about the town, and cares less about what he has to do to make everybody happy.”

Does he seem nicer?

American Idol has returned this week as the swan song for Simon Cowell. Is it just me or does Simon seem less vitriolic than in previous seasons? Of course it is early. I don’t usually watch the auditions since I know I’ll see the best singers in Hollywood and frankly, I’m embarrassed by the bad ones. Why do their parents encourage some of these obviously horrible singers to audition? Are they as self-deluded as their kids? Tearstained contestants are not my idea of fun television.

As for the new vibe with no Paula Abdul, I can’t say it feels that much different. Victoria Beckham, considering her status as a former Spice Girl, was a pretty bland substitute. She hardly said anything during the Boston auditions.

Mary J. Blige, who filled in as the fourth judge during the Atlanta auditions, brought something to the judges’ table.

And, I know they like to have fun with the bad singers, but did we really have to see so much of Jesse Hamilton with his three “near death” experiences that were then reenacted like some bad YouTube footage. Gee, and you wonder why Southerners are sick and tired of jokes about marrying cousins.

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

Well David Letterman is getting the last laugh after all. Back when he and Jay Leno were both fighting to earn The Tonight Show mantle from the retiring Johnny Carson, he lost out and moved over to CBS. Their battle behind the scenes was made into the HBO movie The Late Shift in 1996.

Now a Late Shift II shake-up is happening all over again. Last summer we endured months of annoying promos announcing Leno’s big move to NBC primetime five days a week. Even worse was the actual show itself. The people spoke: they didn’t want to see late night programming in prime time.

When the ratings were first revealed, the NBC executives were quick to point out that Leno’s show was so less expensive than scripted dramas, bad ratings did not mean they were losing money. However, the local NBC affiliates across the country were not happy that NBC’s Leno dead zone was killing the ratings for their 11pm news broadcasts.

NBC had to admit they made a big mistake and have announced a shakeup. After the Olympics, Leno will move to 11:35pm with a half hour show and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien will movie to 12:05am with Jimmy Fallon moving to a 1:05am start.

As Letterman watches on the sidelines, he can enjoy the new in-house feud. O’Brien released a statement saying he was not happy about the change. “I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament, and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision,” he wrote in a statement. He added that “I . . . passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.”

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Simon Cowell

As if the return of American Idol tonight weren’t a big enough event, Simon Cowell has announced that this will be his last season on the show. Last summer, Paula Abdul announced that she was walking away from the show. Popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres was then hired as the new Idol judge.

Perhaps all this behind-the-scenes shakeup is necessary in order to keep the American Idol brand alive and well. Last season’s duel between eventual winner Kris Allen and wildly popular runner-up Adam Lambert will be a hard act to follow.

Cowell is leaving Idol to launch his own new series currently popular in Great Britain. Cowell is being paid nearly $175 million for launching his X Factor show in America next year, according to reports. On Idol, Cowell was merely a hired hand, but he owns X-Factor, a show he hopes will pass Idol in popularity. Among the differences in two shows is that there is no age limit on X-Factor and there are different categories, including in recent seasons, vocal groups, singers over 25 and singers under 25. The biggest winner so far from X-Factor was pop star Leona Lewis.

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.

Cast members from MTV’s Jersey Shore reality TV series will be stepping into the South Jersey scene when they visit the Taj Mahal’s Casbah on Saturday, Feb. 13 (rescheduled from Saturday, Jan. 16). Cast members Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and DJ Pauly D will be at the Casbah.

Jersey Shore debuted on MTV on Dec. 6 and was an immediate sensation as it put eight Italian-American 20-somethings into a summer house in Seaside Heights, a popular summer hot spot in North Jersey. Viewers get a glimpse of their lives and over the top personalities as the characters learn to live together, sharing meals, love, nightlife and learning to co-habitate. Drama unfolds with each episode and it has quickly become one of MTV’s most popular reality series.

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, 27, is from Staten Island, NY. He is known for his antics with the ladies and his rock-hard six pack abs. The way he sees it, he has the situation under control.
Pauly D, 28, hails from Johnston, RI and is Rhode Island’s most well-known DJ. He keeps a tanning bed in his house and orders gel by the case and does his hair twice a day — once in the morning and once before hitting the town.

Donald Trump

As Donald Trump continues his battle with billionaire Carl Icahn over control of the three Trump properties in town, he made an announcement about something he does have control over, his reality TV series Celebrity Apprentice. Trump has announced that the show returns March 14 on NBC. The list of celebrities includes several reality TV veterans (Bret Michaels, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete) as well as baseball great Darryl Strawberry, Cyndi Lauper, American track star Michael Johnson, pro wrestlers Goldberg and Maria Kanellis, comedians Carol Leifer and Sinbad, Olympic gold-medal swimmer Summer Sanders, ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, celebrity chef Curtis Stone and Victoria’s Secret model Selita Ebanks.

Rod Blagojevich

Celebrity Apprentice contestants are all competing for a personal charity of their choosing. Trump has predicted that Blagojevich will be the breakout star this season. It’s nice to know that the disgraced former governor has something to do before his trial June 3 for his alleged scheme to auction off Barack Obama’s vacated Illinois senate seat to the highest bidder.