NEWPORT -- MTV got a taste of the real world here this week.
The cable music channel announced yesterday that it would not film an episode of one of its popular reality shows -- The Real World/Road Rules Challenge -- at a Newport mansion this summer.
MTV representatives told Mayor Richard C. Sardella late yesterday afternoon that they no longer planned to film at the Ivy Lodge, on Bellevue Avenue.
The reason, the mayor said, is that Road Rules would have broken the law. Only 5 unrelated people may legally inhabit residences in Newport and MTV wanted to put up 28 cast members in the mansion for a couple of months.
"Newport is out of the question this year because they could not find a suitable site," Sardella said. "The people from MTV were very understanding."
Sardella said the production could have reaped up to $4 million for city businesses. A crew of 55 would have arrived in the city for the shoot.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "It would have been an exciting opportunity."
But area neighbors feared that the youth-oriented show and the lengthy production schedule would have proven a nuisance. Their lawyer, Turner Scott, said it would have turned a mansion into "a party house," adding "I don't think that's the image Newport needs to portray on Bellevue Avenue."
MTV representatives announced their decision just a couple of hours before a City Council meeting where Scott and neighbors were expected to oppose the production. Instead, there was virtually no discussion of MTV.
Sardella said he heard that MTV scouts might now be looking in Narragansett. If they were to find another location, he said, the producers could use Newport to shoot some of the sports and endurance contests featured in the challenge. The winner gets $300,000.
But the mayor was skeptical that MTV would be able to pull off a summertime production at this point.
"They realized they came into this late in the game," he said.
MTV officials could not be reached for comment.
The mayor said he invited MTV to come back next year to a bed-and-breakfast or the campus of Salve Regina University. The college, he was told, could not accommodate the cable station at this time. Since these sites are not residences, they would not be subject to the cap on unrelated persons living together.
The MTV plans prompted the city to draft an ordinance creating a special filming permit. It would regulate filming in the city and give the public notice of filming proposals. The council last night gave preliminary approval to the ordinance. A final vote will take place when the council meets in two weeks.
Reporter Richard Salit can be reached at 253-1200 or by e-mail at rsalitATprojo.com.
