As a buxom blonde who talked taboo, former Sexcapades columnist and journalism senior Shauvon Torres was Sacramento State’s Carrie Bradshaw.

But in playing the peacemaking party vixen every Wednesday night on MTV’s “The Real World: Sydney,” Torres was careful to present herself as a beauty with a brain.

“I think there is definitely a part of me that is a party girl and a sex vixen but it’s not me at the end of the day,” Torres said.

Merced real estate agent Violet Torres, Shauvon’s mother, said people often underestimate her daughter.

“When you first meet her, you size her up and think, ‘Oh, she’s just a blonde bimbo.’ But then you get to know her and you begin to see how smart she is and how much she loves people,” Violet said. Violet even pointed out that her daughter has a real estate license.

Violet described her daughter as a strong-willed girl who rarely settles for anything.

Torres, who sent an audition tape and auditioned in person while working at the The Library, a bar near campus, believes it was her outgoing personality and ability to represent herself honestly that made casting directors choose her as one of seven housemates for the show’s nineteenth season.

As the eldest of the housemates who has lived with “so many different kinds of roommates” since moving to Sacramento in 2001, Torres felt well-equipped and prepared to handle all the possible drama that played out in previous seasons of “The Real World.”

“I think it also comes with maturity. Obviously there’s going to be drama, but that happens (between roommates everywhere),” Torres said. Though she admitted to being “the peacemaker,” Torres said she was careful not to be pulled into the role of the mediator.

Violet said she is proud when she watches her daughter being the neutral person among so many arguments, but said she expects that of her anyway since she is the eldest cast member.

However, nothing prepared Torres for the culture shock of moving to the other side of the planet, Torres said, who described herself as a once-sheltered girl from Merced who moved to the “big city” of Sacramento to figure out what she wanted in life.

“It was such an amazing experience going to a new country and leaving Sacramento. It was amazing to be part of this gorgeous house and sharing it with six people who were going through the same culture shock as you,” Torres said.

In awe of her new surroundings, the former Sac State student, who will be finishing her education at California State University, Los Angeles in 2008, even admitted to being a little confused by the roommate conflicts that began soon after moving in.

“We were in this great house in a beautiful country – what could there be possibly to be mad about?” she said. Despite conflicts, Torres said it was still an experience she and her fellow castmates were glad to have.

“When something that great happens, you just suck in all the positive things and leave behind everything else.”

Violet said she is glad her daughter got to experience a whole other culture and has had many more opportunities opened to her through MTV hosting jobs.

“These are opportunities many people in Merced never have and certainly something I don’t think I could have ever given her,” Violet said.

One of the experiences we can look forward to sharing with Torres on Wednesday nights is dancing in a gay festival in Australia and participating in the gay parade.

Torres, an admitted bisexual, said Sydney had a thriving gay scene and that she felt no negative reactions from housemates or Aussies because of her sexuality.

“There are people in the house who have their issues, but I just try to be myself? not to have a label on things,” Torres said.

As for presenting herself and the castmates in a truthful way, Torres said she is very pleased with how the events were being aired.

“Basically, everything you see is real,” Torres said. “It’s the editing that gets tricky.” She cited an example of an episode that showed her getting physically intimate with a man but never showed that they had spent all day on a date.

However, Torres is appreciative of all the opportunities she’s had since show ended, in terms of hosting jobs for MTV.

“It’s opened so many doors for me,” Torres said. “I get to travel to so many different states. I get paid to go to clubs to host or to just show my face.”

Torres will be finishing her education at CSU Los Angeles in the Spring semester.

Marilen Bugarin can be reached at [email protected].