Life > March 20, 2003

By Dana Zelig

Old Gold and Black Reviewer

So what did you do on the night of March 19? I mean, before the Homerun Beer Pong tournament? If you didn’t head to Pugh to see Mike and Coral from Real World New York, you missed out.

The “lecture,” put on by Student Union, brought the two MTV cast members to talk about life before and after the show, what filming was like and of course all the dirty details about everyone in the RealWorld universe. So it wasn’t quite your typical lecture.

It worked like a question and answer session, with students asking everything from “What did you think of Nicole’s make-up?” — to which Coral responded with a sigh and “Well…” followed by the admission that she wasn’t really a fan — to “How many people did you hook up with on the show?” — which really got Mike thinking.

In fact, these were just the kind of questions the cast members wanted to hear, and trust me — they didn’t spare any details.

What everyone wanted to know right off the bat was what were Mike and Coral doing now, after their season in NYC and their $50,000 win with other teammates on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge a few seasons ago. Like most ex-cast members, they have both ended up in Los Angeles from their native Ohio and San Francisco, respectively.

Coral works, among other things, for a group called “Zapatos” (“shoes” in Spanish), which delivers shoes to homeless and needy people in the L.A. area.

Mike is wrestling on an independent circuit and hopes to storm the WWE someday. He’s even grown his hair out to look the part. Mike’s also very active in charities like the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Hollywood Knights — a basketball league that raises money for local schools — and the Lupus Foundation with spokesman Howie D. of Backstreet Boy fame.

But of course, they both spend much of their time touring around the country giving lectures and keeping up with their Road Rules and Real World friends, a group they compare to a fraternity or sorority.

Not to be crass, but I watched the New York season, and Mike and Coral definitely had a dynamic relationship, meaning they were always at each other’s throats. So I wanted to know how they transformed their “we love to hate” relationship into a victorious partnership on “The Challenge” and a successful lecture team.

They were both quick to explain that they have become very close friends since the show two years ago. Coral felt she had worked through a lot of personal issues, and Mike remembered their trip to Morocco when they finally started listening to each other.

But the close friends still have their old fire, re-enacting (almost verbatim) their skirmishes over Mike’s hair, pleather pants (that Coral vetoed with a “NOOO!”) and his use of the term “panty-droppers.”  All the fans, many of whom came out March 19, will know what I’m talking about.

The hilarious pair was also eager to tell us how they really felt about their cast members. We learned that Nicole, now a student at NYU, didn’t hook up with Malik because, “he wasn’t black enough for her,” Mike said.

“She was the blackest half-white girl I ever met!” Coral agreed. Not to worry though, because Nicole has a serious boyfriend, one Coral not-so-affectionately calls “Pooty Tang” (allegedly to his face).

Apparently Nicole’s lost some weight too, and while Mike thinks she looks good, Coral likes her with some meat on her bones, “Like Beyonc