Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi opened up about her rebellious behavior during her time on Jersey Shore and revealed that her arrests were actually instigated by the production team.
The 36-year-old reality star, who rose to fame in the late 2000s for her drinking and partying antics alongside co-stars DJ Pauly D, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Vinny Guadagnino, Deena Nicole Cortese, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola, and Angelina Pivarnick, often found herself in trouble due to her wild behavior.
In a 2010 episode of the show, Snooki was arrested for disorderly conduct, criminal annoyance, and disturbing the peace at a beach in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, due to excessive alcohol consumption. During an appearance on influencer Jake Shane’s podcast, “Therapuss with Jake Shane,” she explained, “The cops were on shift from production to make sure they were protecting us from crazy people… So I don’t even think it’s legal because they weren’t working for the town, but I watched the video back, and one of the producers said, ‘Just arrest her.’”
From that moment, Snooki became known for her now-iconic line, “Where’s the beach?”—which eventually became the title of the episode. Recalling the incident, the mother of three explained that she was stumbling and nearly passed out from being heavily intoxicated. She told the 24-year-old host that she couldn’t find the beach entrance, which led her to say the famous quote.
Snooki recounted the day, describing how she was hungover but still had to show up for her shift on the show. To cope, she went to a bar to drink more. “I woke up that day, and I was drinking nonstop… You know when you wake up, and you feel like the shakes are coming? You’re like, ‘I’m going to s–t, I’m going to throw up, but I have to be on camera, and I have to go [to] this shift,’ so I woke up still in my party dress with my blanket on, walking to my shift.”
From getting punched in the face in season one to now being settled down and married to her longtime partner, Jionni LaValle, with whom she shares three kids—Lorenzo, Giovanna, and Angelo— Snooki has come a long way. The TV personality has even launched her own wine line, “Messy Mawma.”