MTV's 'Real World' gets acquainted with real Chicago

CHICAGO -- Welcome to the real world, MTV.

That's the message in a Chicago neighborhood, where cast members from the network's latest installment of "The Real World" have had to contend with shouting protesters, graffiti calling them "DORKS" and even an unrelated shooting that ended with a dead man outside their building.

Now MTV is handing out its own dose of reality. Network officials are pressing charges against several people who demonstrated against the "reality-based" show because -- in their eyes -- it presents an unrealistic and overly posh view of young American life.

"They're trying to sell us an image of our lives," says Nato Thompson, one of 11 arrested protesters who showed up in court last week to face charges of disorderly conduct, among other things. "And if you don't agree with that image, you go to jail."

The charged include a 19-year-old pastry chef, a 22-year-old animator and a 24-year-old college student.

Thompson, 29 and an arts curator, spoke for the group. He claims he was arrested for simply writing the words "What is real?" in chalk on the sidewalk in front of "The Real World" building during a protest.

MTV officials in New York have declined to comment, saying that they don't want to influence how the cast members respond to their surroundings before filming finishes in November.

Normally, "The Real World" thrives on drama, at least on-screen. Earlier casts survived any number of spats, confessions and breakdowns during episodes filmed in such cities as New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

But MTV officials may have gotten more than they bargained for when they chose a three-story brick building on an avenue that is the dividing line between Chicago's trendy-yet-edgy Bucktown and Wicker Park neighborhoods, northwest of downtown Chicago. (One protester calls the digs "an impossibly swanky loft that none of my peers would be able to afford.")

Trouble began at "The Real World" building in July after two men not related to the show were shot in a car that ended up outside its doorstep. One of the men died. That brought attention to the MTV show and protests soon followed, along with graffiti hits, paint splashings and window breaking.