Michael The Situation Sorrentino bares his chest at the Jersey Shore Soundtrack Album Release Party in Marquee on July 13, 2010 in New York City, NY. Fame Pictures, Inc

Earlier this year, the cast of Jersey Shore was holding out for more money for their second season. They were said to want $10,000 an episode, which they eventually received. Now the “second half of the second season” is being filmed. Technically MTV wants it considered the second half of second season so that they don’t have to call it a third season and deal with contract re-negotiations for all the bronzed booze-loving fame and money-seeking stars. Some of them are thinking it’s the third season, though, and they want to get paid. That guy “The Situation” whose situation consists solely of showing his abs, has already been offered a bonus for that “second half” or “cycle three” based on ratings plus $27k-$45k an episode for season 4.

This story is confusing because it looks like MTV’s Jersey Shore producers want to call this latest round “Part B” of Season two when they’re filming, but they’ve called it “cycle” 3 in that offer to Mike “The Situation” and will probably name it “Season 3” when it actually airs. At least that’s the impression I got. Here’s Radar’s report:

MTV is taking a “take it or leave it” approach with The cast of Jersey Shore, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively.

The cast’s original all-for-one, one-for-all contract status had fallen apart and MTV had given the show’s stars until last Friday to individually negotiate new deals, a source close to the cast tells RadarOnline.com.

“None of them did. So when the 16th passed and there were no new deals, MTV took the position that all the cast’s original contracts were still in force at their $10,000 an episode fee.”

The cast was ordered to return to work Monday, or else. “The ‘or else’ part is that if they don’t come back to work tomorrow, it goes to legal,” the source explains.

A big part of the controversy stems from the fact that the cast’s original two-season deal became muddied when MTV decided to break season 2 into two parts, which they are contractually calling “cycle” 2A and 2B.

“MTV is taking the position that they are still in season 2, even though the cast may look at it as season 3 and therefore not covered by their existing deals,” the source explains.

Angelina has already been dumped from the cast. She told RadarOnline.com exclusively that working conditions on the show “sucked.”

[From Radar Online]

I don’t like these Jersey Shore kids and generally find them to be entitled idiots who would be lucky to get a tenth of the opportunities that MTV is handing them. Even considering that, though, it looks like MTV is trying to pull a fast one on them. In that letter to The Situation they offer him a bonus for season three based on ratings and a per-episode rate for season four based on ratings and basically tell his people to get back to them in two days or the deal is off. Then they push filming for Monday without giving anyone the time to negotiate. They probably don’t care and consider these kids interchangeable. They are to an extent. They fight, hook up and get drunk on camera. There are plenty of other kids who will do all that for much less money.

TMZ reports that the cast is on strike. J-Woww, Ronnie, Sammi, Pauly D and Vinny are said to have refused to film. Snooki is expected to follow suit and it’s unknown what The Situation plans to do. The good news is that this show may be derailed, at least for a short time.

Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi poses for the cameras at the Jersey Shore Soundtrack Album Release Party in Marquee on July 13, 2010 in New York City, NY. Fame Pictures, Inc Paul DJ Pauly D DelVecchio poses for the cameras at the Jersey Shore Soundtrack Album Release Party in Marquee on July 13, 2010 in New York City, NY. Fame Pictures, Inc NEW YORK - JULY 13: Michael 'The Situation' Sorrentino attends the 'Jersey Shore' album release party at Marquee on July 13, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images) NEW YORK - JULY 13: Jenni 'J-WOW' Farley attends the 'Jersey Shore' album release party at Marquee on July 13, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)

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