Nick & Jessica Set for Season Premiere

By Stephen M. Silverman

01/21/2004 at 05:34 PM EST

The second season of the MTV reality hit "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica" may kick off Wednesday night -- but parts of the latest installment were actually filmed last Oct. 25, when Jessica Simpson performed at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City.

Simpson and Nick Lachey's first anniversary was the next night, Oct. 26, and they spent the weekend with winners of a radio meet-the-famous-couple contest and playing some rounds of "21," according to the local Press of Atlantic City newspaper.

"They were professional, nice, gracious, fun people. They weren't on a star trip of any kind," Steve Gietka, vice president of entertainment for Trump Properties, told the paper. "Nick seemed like a great guy. ... Jessica was a sweetheart, a charming girl, and one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in the flesh."

The Press also says that the anniversary of Simpson, 23, and Lachey, 30, coincided with that weekend's German Oktoberfest beer celebration at the Taj.

According to an MTV spokesperson, however, Simpson and Lachey were seeking a quiet weekend, and the Oktoberfest attracted plenty of loud, middle-aged people to the New Jersey resort. So the star couple hightailed it to New York to celebrate.

In Manhattan, as Wednesday's season premiere will reveal, they rode a carriage in Central Park and ended up dining at Tavern on the Green. They also mark Lachey's 30th birthday, with Simpson jumping out of a cake in nothing but a diamond watch and lingerie.

Simpson reportedly will also be shown doing something else that she does extremely well: shopping.