MTV's newest show — which takes place on a picturesque beach — is hardly the vision of paradise.

According to The Tampa Bay Times, a Siesta Key premiere party scheduled for Monday night (July 31) at CineBistro in nearby Sarasota was canceled because Alex Kompothecras, who appears in the series, had received death threats. The Times says Kompothecras had been an online target after it was revealed he was friends with one of the men who was featured dragging a shark to death behind a boat in a recent viral video.

A new Facebook page called "Boycott Siesta Key MTV" developed in recent weeks in response to the incident and has amassed nearly 5,000 followers since.

Kompothecras has defended himself in a since-deleted Facebook post, in which he insisted he had nothing to do with the video.

“I had absolutely nothing to do with the shark video,” he wrote, according to Rolling Stone. “Yes he’s a friend of mine, but no I don’t agree with what he did. Check your facts before you go posting on my page. Thanks.”

Siesta Key, a new series that's pegged as a cross between The Hills and Laguna Beach, is described by MTV as a coming-of-age story "confronting issues of love, heartbreak, betrayal, class, and looming adulthood as they spend the summer together in their beautiful hometown."

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