Jersey Shore's New Jersey Girl: Season 3 Welcomes Deena Nicole Cortese

Guess who is about to face the critics?

Sources tell TVGuide.com that MTV will introduce new Jersey Shore cast member Deena Nicole Cortese — a friend of Snooki's, natch — to the world Friday during the network's Television Critics Association summer session.

Cortese will be on hand to take questions from reporters when the GTL group takes the stage.

The New Egypt, N.J., native, who has already caught flak for a racy McSpace page and letting loose with the N-word, steps in for exiting castmate Angelina Pivarnick, who will not be returning for Season 3. Cortese, 23, auditioned for the show in Season 1 but didn't make the cut, according to TMZ, which posted her F-bomb-laden audition tape on Thursday night.

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Cortese's mother, Joann, told Radar Online that her daughter found her way into the fist-pumping crew through her friend Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi. "They've known each other for a couple of years," she said. "I'd say they're pretty close... Nicole lives all the way upstate and it's hard, but they keep in touch."

Cortese attended Brookdale Community College in Lyncroft, N.J., according to The New York Post, which first reported her casting.

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While Cortese hails from the Garden State, it's doubtful New Jersey governor Chris Christie will be pleased with her addition. (She described herself on her now-defunct MySpace page as "ADDiCTiVE & ExPENiIV3 LiK3 COCAiNE!") Last month, Christie noted — with a bit of pride —that  Jersey Shore had only one New Jersey native in its cast. He told ABC's This Weekthat the show gives his home state a bad rap. "What it does is it takes a bunch of New Yorkers... drops them at the Jersey Shore and tries to make America feel like this is New Jersey," he said.

What do you think about Jersey Shore's newest addition?

(Additional reporting by Kate Stanhope.)