Reality show featuring 10 students still in the works

The show’s 10 cast members were chosen in a casting session in May. Clawson said that she and co-director Tricia Rosenthal completed filming and editing a promotional clip last month. They are currently pitching the show to three possible networks, but Clawson declined to say which ones. Though the directors originally planned to film the pilot this fall, they now hope to complete an introductory pilot by February 2011.

“The University is just so amazing, and the students are just so fabulous, and I want to portray that,” Clawson said. Rather than centering the show around individual students’ personalities, she explained that “Princeton is the main character.”

Clawson lives in Princeton, and Rosenthal lives in nearby Hopewell.

The producers of “Ivy League” have yet to contact the University to seek permission to feature Princeton or its campus on the show, University spokeswoman Emily Aronson said in an e-mail, explaining that the University would have a number of considerations to make in deciding whether or not to grant permission to a reality television show.

“We have very stringent criteria that we would apply in considering these shows, particularly as it relates to student privacy issues,” Aronson said. “Princeton is a private campus, and students have an expectation of privacy while here,” she explained.

Clawson said the show will aim to “pull out of each character” as much as possible, noting that the show might portray the students’ family lives.

Last May, when Ben Bush ’10 served as the campus liaison to the show, he told The Daily Princetonian that the directors planned to seek University approval for the show “very soon.”

Bush, who is no longer involved in the project, forwarded a request for comment to Clawson, who acknowledged that she and Rosenthal have not yet applied for University approval.

Aronson also cited concerns about the physical demands that filming would place on campus resources, as well as intellectual property violations if shooting took place in classrooms.

Even if “Ivy League” is not filmed on campus, Aronson said that in order for the show to use Princeton’s name, it would have to meet certain basic criteria. When a film uses Princeton’s name, the University must have a particular interest in the movie and approve the script, she explained.

“We generally look for synergies with the project,” Aronson said. Movies like “A Cinderella Story” and “Spanglish” feature female characters applying to Princeton and coincide with the University’s interest in increasing the number of applications from young women, she added.

“This is not going to be ‘Jersey Shore’ at Princeton,” Clawson said. “This is the academics, the elite, a very high, high taste. It’s just going to be elegant.”