Fitchburg (Hearts) Slater, Uncle Joey

Check it out, Fitchburg is becoming a haven for B-list stars of all generations.

Fitchburg State College is filling the void left behind by Joan Jett with a series of, ahem, stars visiting campus this fall. The Sentinel seemed to lock onto the college-cool of MTV reality stars, but we're all a-twitter over A.C. Slater and Uncle Joey.

Slater was the jock on "Saved by the Bell" and was played by Mario Lopez. Beyond that star-making turn, Lopez had a small role on "Simon & Simon" in the 1980s (we loved "Simon & Simon") and since the turn of the century has popped up in things like "Extreme Dodgeball" and "Aloha, Scooby Doo." Wheee.

Uncle Joey was the funny yet insightful live-in relative to the Tanners on "Full House," played by Dave Coulier. He was quick with an impression (usually of Donald Duck, we think) and wore an impressive hockey-style mullet. Most interesting of all, he's been long tabbed as the inspiration for Alanis Morrissette's hate-filled "You Oughta Know," although she has always denied it.

As for for the recent and the young, Veronica Portillo and Landon Lueck, who are vets of MTV reality shows, are also coming around for a visit.

What does this mean for the city? Well, not much really. It doesn't fix the roads, improve the schools, or better access to downtown. But it's a great, quirky wrinkle about the city. If we were the city's publicist, we'd gleefully proclaim the city to be Massachusetts' home of the B-listers. What if next year FSC got Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) and Zach (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who was on "NYPD Blue")? That would be so cool. Hey, they aren't coming to Leominster, are they.