The 'Jersey Shore' cast was "just blown away," Rex recalled of introducing the Oscar winner to the reality TV personalities
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NEED TO KNOW
- Simon Rex revealed during the taping of the March 12 Drew Barrymore Show episode how he learned Leonardo DiCaprio is unexpectedly a fan of Jersey Shore
- Rex explained that he learned of the Oscar winner’s interest after DiCaprio asked Rex to introduce him to the cast following Jersey Shore’s 2009 debut
- The Jersey Shore cast was “just blown away, like, ‘He knows who we are,’ ” Rex recalled
Leonardo DiCaprio is apparently a fan of at least one reality TV show.
The Oscar winner knew all about the MTV classic Jersey Shore, Simon Rex told Drew Barrymore during the taping of her March 12 Drew Barrymore Show episode.
In a sneak-peek clip, Barrymore, 51, tried to guess whether a group of statements about Rex, also 51, were true or false. The game began with: “I introduced Leonardo DiCaprio to the Jersey Shore cast at a club.”
Barrymore hesitated before accurately guessing “true,” and Rex simply replied, “That happened, yeah.” The E.T. actress then asked him to tell her “about that moment.”

Credit: Drew
The former MTV video jockey obliged and explained that he was out at a club, and that DiCaprio, now 51, was there as well. He clarified they had a friendly dynamic, “I'm not friends with Leo, but I'd say what's up to him.”
As the Tow star was greeting DiCaprio at his table, the Jersey Shore cast was at a nearby table. “[DiCaprio] goes, ‘Is that the Jersey Shore guys over there?' " Rex said before asking him, “ 'Did you watch that?' ”
The Titanic star confirmed he did and said, “ ‘I wanna meet them,” ” Rex recalled.
“So I brought him over,” Rex said. “They were just blown away like, 'He knows who we are,' and it was just this funny moment where he was talking to them.”
“I just sat back, like, I did my work. I'm done here,” Rex joked, to which Barrymore added, "Pop culture meets pop culture."
While Rex didn’t specify the year this occurred, the hit MTV series first premiered in 2009 and ran for six seasons until its conclusion in 2012. The first cast included Angelina Pivarnick, DJ Pauly D, Jenni “JWOWW” Farley, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola and Vinny Guadagnino, with the addition of Deena Cortese in its third season.
The show became a cultural phenomenon chronicling the summers of a group of 20-somethings living and partying in a Seaside Heights, N.J., beach house. In the years since its initial debut, MTV has expanded the Jersey Shore universe into a pop-culture force, creating multiple spinoffs with nearly 300 episodes.

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Over almost two decades of filming, the roommates have grown up on camera, navigating relationships, marriages, sobriety, parenthood, and career reinventions — all while maintaining the chemistry that first made them famous.
The latest iteration, Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, will come to a close with its eighth season premiering on May 7. MTV announced on March 4 that the upcoming season will be the farewell season and the “last hurrah for a cultural icon.”
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