By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: The Salahi saga continues. After the furore over a wannabe reality TV star couple crashing the White House State dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bravo TV Network is cautiously debating whether to cast them on the “Real Housewives of Washington, D.C” show.
NBC Universal, Bravo’s parent company, is polling consumers about their perceptions of the couple Michaele and Tareq Salahi who infamously showed up uninvited to President Barack Obama’s first state dinner Nov 24 and are currently the subject of a federal investigation.
According to Broadcasting & Cable the online survey includes questions like, “What are the first words that pop into your head when you think of the White House Gate Crashers story?” And “How did you feel about the amount and type of coverage the White House Gate Crashers story has received?”
The survey also includes a question about Mayumi and Richard Heene, who pleaded guilty to lying to authorities after claiming that their six-year-old son flew off in a helium balloon. Many have compared the reality TV aspirations of the Salahis and the Heenes.
In a CBS interview, President Obama commented on the Salahi scandal, “[I’m] unhappy with everybody who was involved in the process.” The president added, “Although I chafe at being in the bubble, I also want to make sure my family is safe. It won’t happen again.”
Meanwhile, it now turns out that the fake watch that the Salahis used to settle a debt to a landscaper was a gift from Tareq Salahi’s brother or so claims his lawyer.
“It is what it is,” David W. Silek told the Washington Post Friday. “It was a gift to him, and he thought it was real.”
Silek who was back at the Warren County Court House on Friday representing the White House gatecrasher, in a case against a man who owes money to Salahi, said that he was stunned when he learned a jeweller deemed the watch a phony and valued it at $100. The Salahis brought a certified check to pay the roughly $2,000 they owed instead.
“I find it surprising that you could look at it and immediately see it was fake,” Silek said.
Tareq’s brother Ismail Salahi, a Florida-based doctor, could not be reached for comment Friday, the Post said.
Shortly after the White House incident, he told local reporters he hadn’t spoken to his brother in five years, and that while he was “shocked” by the episode, he wasn’t surprised: “I don’t definitely put it past him and his wife to do something like this.”
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])