Real-World labor issues too much for MTV

Mar 18, 2004 | PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Real-world labor issues apparently were too much for the producers of a popular MTV reality show.

Bunim/Murray Productions said Tuesday it had given up plans to tape the 15th season of "The Real World" in Philadelphia. Taping had been set to begin in three weeks.

The production company had angered labor unions by hiring a nonunion company to renovate the former Seamen's Church Institute in Old City, where it planned to have seven strangers live together and have their lives videotaped. Members of the building trades unions picketed outside the building.

A Bunim/Murray spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the one-sentence statement issued Tuesday: "After considerable evaluation, we are disappointed to announce that Bunim/Murray productions has decided not to shoot 'The Real World' in Philadelphia."

It was unclear whether MTV would choose another city or delay its shooting schedule. A spokeswoman for the New York cable network declined to comment Wednesday and referred questions to Bunim/Murray in Van Nuys, Calif.

"I've got kids looking at me like I killed Santa Claus," Pat Gillespie, president of the powerful Building Trades Council, said Wednesday. "Look, they come into our town and make a decision to avoid union workers. Whether they were prepared for what would happen, it was a conscious decision that they made."

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