Just a month ago, Snooki told PEOPLE that she was looking for love. Well, it seems she got her wish: Just a week or so ago, the Jersey Shore breakout star started dating 21-year-old Emilio Masella, a personal trainer at the Gold’s Gym in New Haven, Conn.
“We met on Facebook over a year ago,” Masella tells PEOPLE exclusively. “We started talking online again before the show even started airing and started hanging out again.”
Just a few days ago, Masella said he and Snooki (real name: Nicole Polizzi), 22, began dating exclusively.
“We have a lot in common,” he says. “I think our features… It’s really weird but we do [look alike]. It’s cute though!”
In their spare time, the couple goes to parties and clubs for her official appearances, but, “When she’s not working, we watch movies and relax so she can be normal for once. … We wanted to go see Dear John but we didn’t have time!”
And that’s how Masella prefers it. Though he’s OK with the amount of attention his famous girlfriend gets, he admits that “after awhile, it does get annoying, but it’s all right — it’s kind of expected.”
Despite all the fame and flashbulbs that surround Snooki, Masella says he likes her for who she is — not the character portrayed on the MTV reality show.
“Honestly, I think that what they show on the show, that’s not really her,” he says. “She’s actually really sweet and down-to-earth but the show makes her look like she’s a crazy party girl. It doesn’t show her other side.”
“She really just speaks what on her mind — she tells it how it is, which is nice,” he adds. Plus, “She talks to me for me, a lot of girls hit on me for how I look, but she actually got to know me.”
Masella also says that while he’s just now begun calling her his “girlfriend,” he’s already met her parents (yup, dad approves!) and the two have already discussed Masella possibly appearing on season two of Jersey Shore.
“She already told me she wants me to,” he says. “I would want to see her — being away for a month, that’s kind of a long time. I definitely would want to go see her.”
–Lesley Messer
Splash News Online
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