A Real Housewife Crashes a White House Party
Tareq and Michaele Salahi created a media frenzy in November 2009 when they finessed their way into President Obama's first state dinner. Crashing the party (to which they maintain they were invited) wasn't the worst of it: the couple, known forever after as the White House gate crashers, were filming the event for The Real Housewives of D.C., an installment in Bravo's reality-show franchise. In the episode that aired Sept. 30, the couple is seen in a limo en route to the state dinner, with Michaele dressed in a traditional Indian sari (the dinner was for India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh). The cameras do not follow the Salahis inside the party, but the next morning they recount their night and discuss meeting Obama and taking photos with Vice President Joe Biden and then White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. The White House issued a statement that the Salahis were neither invited to nor seated for the dinner, but the truth may never be known. In their testimony before a House committee, Tareq and Michaele took the Fifth.