In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the tanned, big-haired, six-packed stars of MTV's Jersey Shore, will be putting their dubious fame to good use to rebuild the ravaged site that once served as the staging ground for their exploits. MTV has scheduled Restore the Shore, a fundraising telethon in partnership with nonprofit Architecture for Humanity to air November 15. The show will feature Jersey Shore cast members and other guests, and will solicit donations to restore the boardwalk and help out businesses and residents. Though it may be easy to mock the cast's participation in relief—surely Chris Christie, no fan of the show, was more touched by Bruce Springsteen's outreach—it's also most definitely for a good cause. As the AP reported last week, the actual Shore house appears not to have been damaged, but Seaside Heights was the site of one of the more famous images of destruction to emerge from the storm: that of a roller coaster swept out into the sea.

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Esther Zuckerman