MTV releases profiles of the Key West cast; MJ has activities going on his website; Rebecca keeps her band alive; The Miz is busy in the WWE

MTV updated its website with information on the Key West cast. Check out the website here.

Here are the cast bios:

Janelle, 23 -- San Jose, CA - Strong-willed and independent is how Janelle's friends describe her. This half-black, half-white beauty is not known to avoid confrontation - she's passionate and refuses to take crap from anyone. Janelle just added her recent graduation from University of San Jose to her list of accomplishments. However, Janelle is far from done with her education, and dreams of attending law school in the near future. In the meantime, she is ready to broaden her horizons, and what better place for that than the Real World? Will Janelle stumble for the first time in her life, or learn to lean on those around her?

John, 23 -- Fullerton, CA - With his chameleon-like ability to adapt to his surroundings, recent Penn State graduate John is the Real World's answer to Ferris Bueller. An unpredictable mixture of craftiness, charisma, intelligence and kindness, John more than lives up to his old nickname, "Johnny Bananas." But now that John's golden college years have passed, what's the next step? That's the place we will meet John at as he embarks on his Real World experience. Will this social butterfly find the direction he needs or will he continue to flounder as he revels in his glory days?

Jose, 20 -- Sunrise, FL - Picture the Brooklyn projects where 20-year-old Jose was raised, surrounded by drugs, violence and the influence of "the wrong crowd." Under those circumstances it would have been easy to fulfill his tyrannical father's prophecy that Jose would grow up to be just like him: another deadbeat failure with no future. But since Jose has never been one to take the easy road, we can flash forward to the present, where he is now in his junior year at Florida State University, the owner of multiple rental properties and the proud holder of his real estate broker license. Known to his friends as "The Don," Jose is sure to take the Real World house by storm with his natural leadership, suave nature and love of partying.

Paula, 24 -- Meriden, CT - Since her graduation from Quinnipiac University, Paula has become a corporate slave by day, but makes up for it by partying relentlessly at night. No shrinking violet, this striking girl demands the spotlight from both men and women. Confrontational, yet sensitive; bitchy, yet likeable; damaged, yet self-aware; attractive, yet insecure; Paula possesses a variety of personality traits. Seemingly caught in a downhill spiral, Paula is still connected to her abusive ex-boyfriend, and is battling body image issues. Paula is a wildcard to say the least. Chaos seems follows this beautiful young woman everywhere she goes, and the Real World house should prove to be no exception.

Svetlana, 19 -- Richboro, PA - As a nineteen year old pre-med student at Temple University, Svetlana has the reputation of being the "crazy Russian chick." While this buxom beauty is truly a confident fireball, she's also vulnerable and emotionally conflicted. Svetlana is torn between her dependency on her family, and the need to venture out and embrace all of life's adventures. As a first-generation immigrant, she's expected to live at home and work in the family restaurant. She does this instead of fulfilling her desire to live on her own, and have what she defines as a normal college experience. Let's see how Svetlana does as she finally gets her opportunity to leave the nest--and immerse herself in the Real World.

Tyler, 23 -- Minneapolis, MN - You either love him or hate him, but either way you'll have to admit that 23-year-old Tyler isn't afraid to "tell it like it is." This Midwest guy considers gossiping social commentary, his roommates' property his own, and anyone else's strife ridiculous compared to the adversities he has faced. Openly gay, Tyler was known for parading around his Tufts University campus in drag, sprinkling glitter on his fellow classmates. But there is more to Tyler than his flamboyant acts of vanity, selfishness and martyrdom. He is also a fantastic story teller, an accomplished athlete and a very intelligent kid who is just looking for attention and acceptance. Tyler must decide whether to use his gifts for good or evil as he dives head first into the Real World.

Zach, 22 -- Portland, OR - The proverbial nice guy you want to take home to mom, 22-year-old Zach is sensitive, good-looking and goal-oriented. As a senior studying Communications at Louis and Clark College, Zach has a world of opportunity waiting for him when he graduates. Born into a close-knit Jewish family, he comes from old money and old traditions. Things have not always been so easy for Zach, though. Until recently, he was regarded as the chubby nice guy. Since then, Zach has transformed himself and has emerged as a confident young man ready to take on the world. Zach's high energy and tendency to relentlessly "fix" everyone around him is sure to bring an interesting dynamic to a house guaranteed to be filled with roommates in need of some major repair.


MJ (Philadelphia) has a lot of things going on post-Gauntlet II. Say I Won't Clothing designed a line of MJ t-shirts that are available exclusively on MJ's website. MJ is also running a contest in the gallery section where people can email him the funniest pictures that they have taken with MJ. The Gauntlet Blog will also be posted soon on his website.

Rebecca (Seattle) also kept her band Becky alive after the departure of Keanu Reeves. You can check out the latest updates at her My Space.

The Miz (Back to New York) is also keeping busy in the WWE. After moving to Atlanta to participate in Deep South Wrestling, Mike has yet made another move, this time to Louisville, KY. The Miz is still in pursuit of his WWE dream and is said to be ever closer to getting to the big leagues after doing well in Deep South. Good luck to The Miz. He's providing commentary at WWE Inside every now and then, so be sure to check it out.

The Gauntlet 2 heats up as Beth S. confronts her team and sends Ruthie home

On tonight's episode of The Gauntlet II, the drama really heats up, as the season kicks off one of its main storylines. If you want to know what happens on tonight's episode (or on future episodes), highlight the following block of text:

Beth's (Los Angeles) suspicions of her team wanting to vote her off are confirmed when her team loses another female Gauntlet day. While Jisela (The Quest) volunteered to go home in the previous Gauntlet, the team selects Beth to face off against Ruthie (Hawaii), after Beth has a spat against Montana (Boston) during the Challenge.

Beth pulls off an upset and beats Ruthie in the Gauntlet, sending her home and making Beth captain.

Vote for the Blog in the annual Bloggies

The Blog has been providing Real World and Road Rules information for fans of the show (in one form or another) since 1998. Over at the Bloggies, visitors can vote for their favorite weblogs in a variety of different categories. We encourage you to visit the Bloggies and to please vote for the Blog! There's only a couple of days left, so hurry!

You can rent the Back to New York house for $25,000 a month

It's a new year. Why not find some new digs? If you have $35,000 to shell out every month then you could be the proud tenant of the Real World Back to New York loft. Check out the ad in the Observer.

Chris was on the View talking about his book; Rachel and Veronica on the Fishbowl

Chris (Chicago) recently appeared on the View, chatting with the ladies about his new book. Ilene tells us that although the ladies were far more interested on how he cleaned himself up, Chris was kind of vague about it. He also credited his experience on The Real World as helping him recover because the cameras were on him 24-7. Check out his site for updates on Chris.

Both Rachel (Campus Crawl) and Veronica (Semester At Sea) will be appearing on the The Fishbowl, possibly to promote their new reality show with BMP, where they took some random girl and made her one of the "mean girls".

Katie (The Quest) has also updated her blog with a recent Gauntlet II review.

Also, since the Gauntlet II seems to have TONS of quotes that are memorable, we are currently accepting visitor-submitted quotes. If you noticed, we run quotes at the top of the page, which are designed to change everytime you hit "Refresh/Reload". So, if you have a quote that you think belongs up there, submit it to newrwroad@hotmail.com. Make sure the subject line is QUOTES, so we can easily identify the messages.

And finally, many are wondering about the lack of news on Key West and Fresh Meat. Well, paired with the holiday season and the fact that production on both series have wrapped since then, there's very little news to report on future seasons of The Real World or the Challenges. More should come in February, when Key West premieres.

Katie is doing updates at Inside Pulse on the Gauntlet 2

Katie (The Quest) is still doing updates at Inside Pulse. Check them out.

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Beth is posting recaps; Robin, Mark, Jodi are in a love triangle next week

In of the most dramatic Challenge seasons ever, Beth (Los Angeles) has also been providing recaps of the episodes. You can check them out here at Reality TV Stuff.

In an already dramatic season that saw the hasty departure of Jo (San Francisco), the rise of Derrick (Extreme) as a leader of the Veterans and the fight between Danny (Extreme) and Jodi (Extreme)... Comes yet another piece of drama. Next week's episode is being hyped up as there is tension between Jodi (Extreme), Mark (USA Tour 1) and Robin (San Diego)...

If you are fresh on your gossip, Mark and Robin both met on the Battle of the Sexes 2 and dated pretty seriously for a short time. Then, on the Inferno II, drama erupted between Robin and Beth (Los Angeles) because Beth revealed that Tonya (Chicago) had slept with Mark. Now, although this is still unclear, it looks like that Beth reveals to Robin that Jodi and Mark were pretty hot and heavy. (Got all that?) MTV is hyping up this episode... but in recent memory, the last time MTV hyped up an episode was when CT (Paris) pulled off "The Biggest Lie in Real World history", when he claimed responsibility for Leah's (Paris) flowers. Don't forget to catch the episode next Monday.

Happy New Years!

Spend New Years with none other Eric Nies

Do you want to party with Eric (New York)? Well here's your chance.

Danny and Melinda show up on TRL and give a shot out to his Grandma

In probably one of the most strangest appearances ever, both Danny (Austin) and Melinda (Austin) showed up on TRL today, but not as guests, but as members of the audience. Apparently, they were in town to get Melinda's ring re-sized. They stopped by the TRL studios to check out the show. Unfortunately, they both awkwardly stuck out since they were former castmembers who were sitting in the front row and were two of the oldest audience members in attendance. TRL eventually allowed/forced them to do a shot-out, where Danny said hello to his Grandma.

Chris writes a book about his battle with alcoholism

Chris (RW Chicago) has written a book about his battle with alcohol. The book is called "Clean" and you can pick it up at Barnes and Noble.