Hollywood Central: Flo Rida, Alison Sweeney, Melissa Joan Hart Reminisce On 'When I Was 17'

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Flo Rida, Alison Sweeney, Melissa Joan Hart Reminisce On 'When I Was 17'

Stars remember huge ragers and making out with their hands on latest episode.
By Mawuse Ziegbe

Flo Rida
Photo: MTV

Flo Rida didn't waste any time getting on his hip-hop grind as a teen, starting his career as a member of the rap crew the Groundhoggz. In addition to picking up some practice in the rap game, the "Elevator" rapper also developed an important part of his persona: his moniker.

"When I was 17, to be a part of a group like the Groundhoggz, you definitely have to come up with a name," the MC recalled on the latest episode of "When I Was 17." "At first, I was going by the name of Ruckus Pimp. I just thought that was like a little bit out there, so I went to over to my boy's house. He's just like, 'Man, we got to come up with a name today.' "

The MC explained that he and his homie put their heads together to come up with a tag. The rapper eventually thought of a handle inspired by his southern roots.

"So, OK, I sat up there for about an hour and finally, it hit me," he says. "Take Florida, break it in half and there you go: Flo Rida."

While Flo Rida was laying the groundwork for his future, Melissa Joan Hart's career was in full swing. The star of Nickelodeon's "Clarissa Explains It All" often spent long stretches of time away from loved ones, so she once threw a huge rager when she had a break from shooting.

"One time [Melissa] called and said, 'Listen, Nicole, I want to have a few people over my dad's house. Can you organize something?' " her friend Nicole remembered. "It's a small town, not too much happening, so if Melissa was coming home and said she wanted to have a party, everybody was going to show up."

Hart's sister Trisha remembered that the bash got a wee bit out of hand.

"All these people started coming through the door," she said. "It was unstoppable." Hart agreed the soiree got pretty raucous.

"Pretty much the whole town showed up," she recalled. "It was probably a few hundred people in and out all night. You couldn't shut it down. It became chaos."

Like Hart, Alison Sweeney was already a working actress as a teen, starring on the long-running soap "Days of our Lives." However, when work and school collided is when the drama really began. Sweeney remembered a moment when some of her on-set antics caused a problem in the classroom.

"I had a scene with the girl who plays my sister, and Carrie was teaching Sami how to French kiss and Carrie said, 'Well, you can practice on your hand.' So we had a whole scene where we're literally making out with our hands. Making kissing noises, like actually kissing our hands," she recalled. "Six weeks later, I'm in my U.S. history class and the teacher had a VCR that was broken so he had to go get another one. And while we were waiting for him to come back, the kids are like, 'Let's watch 'Days of our Lives.' " And just like some loopy daytime-TV plot twist, the embarrassing make-out scene Sweeney had taped earlier was playing, much to the amusement of her fellow high-schoolers.

"It was so horrifying and I didn't know what to do. I thought about breaking the TV but I sat there at my desk and I just put my hands in my desk and covered my face," she said. "I was so mortified."

"When I Was 17" airs Saturdays at 11 a.m. on MTV

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