The couple at the centre of the state dinner stunt may have been trying to secure a role in a reality TV show, writes Lara Marlowein Washington
REALITY TELEVISION strikes again.
Six weeks after a Colorado couple mesmerised the US with a hoax involving their six-year-old son and a homemade balloon, a former cheerleader for the Washington Redskins and her husband, the son of an Israeli immigrant, failed winegrower and dubious organiser of charity polo events, have become overnight celebrities for crashing President Barack Obama’s first state dinner on Tuesday night.
While the Secret Service investigates the security breach amid calls for the resignation of the agency's director, CNN has invited Michaele and Tareq Salahi to appear on the Larry King Showon Monday night.
Bravo Media confirmed it assigned a film crew to follow Michaele Salahi on Tuesday, in preparation for the network's upcoming reality show, The Real Housewives of DC.
The stunt may have been motivated by the couple’s desire to secure a role in the television series. Michaele Salahi told the network she and her husband were invited to the state dinner. An executive at Bravo said the network had no reason to disbelieve her.
The film crew accompanied her to Erwin Gomez salon in Georgetown, where she spent seven hours having her hair and make-up done on Tuesday.
When the hair stylist asked to see the invitation, the aspiring socialite said she must have left it in the car.
NBC anchor Brian Williams, who genuinely was invited to the dinner, for the Indian prime minister, told the Today Showhe saw the Salahis' SUV turned away from the east gate of the White House.
The camera crew was with them, as well as a woman who touched up Michaele Salahi’s hair and make-up.
The couple then got out of the vehicle and queued with other guests entering on foot.
Representative Peter King of the House Homeland Security Committee has demanded a congressional investigation into the security lapse.
"Obviously, somebody dropped the ball," King told the New York Times.
“I mean, you’re talking about the president of the United States and the vice-president and a powerful world leader, the prime minister of India.”
King said the Secret Service’s excuse that the Salahis had in any case gone through the same weapons searches as bona fide guests was irrelevant.
“They could have had anthrax on them. They could have grabbed a knife from the dining room table.”
Ronald Kessler, the author of a book on the Secret Service, wrote in the tabloid New York Daily Newsthat the incident was "a disgrace and symptomatic of lax standards at the Secret Service" at a time when threats against the US president have increased 400 per cent.
Kessler called for the agency’s director, Mark Sullivan, to be sacked.
Fox News described the Salahis as “high-profile fixtures in the Beltway social scene”. It reported that they were involved in 16 civil lawsuits in Virginia, where authorities have issued a warning to the public to beware of the Salahis’ use of polo events to solicit charity.
A feud between Tareq Salahi and his mother led to the bankruptcy of Oasis Vineyards, which was founded by his father, an immigrant from Israel.