This is the true story of a Denver Post columnist and his blog, picked to follow the cast of MTV’s “The Real World” as it films in Denver to find out what happens when people stop pandering to nondisclosure demands and start getting real. The Real World: blog.

While on screen “The Real World” may be all prima-donna blowouts, late night hot tub sessions and glorious infighting, there’s a whole lot going on behind the scenes that audiences never get to see. Until now. Denver Post staff writer John Wenzel has launched Get Real Denver, a new blog with a single purpose: follow stalk “Real World” cast members as the series shoots its 18th (18th!?!) season. To do so, Wenzel enlists the tools of a true blue gossip writer: Semi-anonymous tips and camera phone pics, all in hopes of keeping up-to-the-minute tabs on the latest season’s cast. He’s even set up a webcam across the street from the show’s swanky LoDo house, a former dance club, though the cam has been mysteriously covered up twice since going online.

But the blog doesn’t just deal out spoilers, GetRealDenver goes beyond that, detailing first-hand the ugly underbelly of large-scale reality TV production. Wenzel logs the complaints of Denver bar owners who’ve banned the cast from their establishments, the production crew’s attempts to get nondisclosure agreements signed from passersby, and the baseless threats of the meathead security team (many of whom are off-duty Denver Police officers) that intimidate citizens out of taking pictures of the show’s house or cast members in public. In other words, the blog aims to capture to reality of the reality show. And what better a target than the most polished, prettiest, reality show of them all -– and a show which takes part of its identity each season from the city it shoots in. It seems only logical that a publication like the Post, which has a vested interest in the Mile High City’s identity, would feel obliged to report the truth about a show based there (is this the first show set in Denver since “Mork & Mindy“?). While viewers of reality TV likely know that what they’re seeing on TV isn’t exactly real, they are likely more naive about what it takes to capture that footage, which is why the GetRealDenver blog is so appealing -– it is real. And frequently more interesting than anything on MTV’s air.

To get more on the real side of “The Real World,” check out Wenzel’s blog. Or wait until the 18th season of the show begins this fall on MTV.

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