A little more than a month after the "balloon boy" debacle, America witnessed the equally shameless fame-seeking stunt of Tareq and Michaele Salahi, a pair of Virginia socialites now known as the Gate Crashers. On Nov. 24, the duo strolled into a White House state dinner sans invitation to rub elbows with the likes of President Obama, Vice President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and later triumphantly posted photos of their coup on Facebook. The Salahis briefly basked in the widespread media coverage of the White House security breach. They started out calmly insisting that they had been invited, before revealing their ulterior motive: reality TV! That's right they were just gunning for a role on Bravo's forthcoming reality series The Real Housewives of D.C. (Such outlandish social capers appear to be a pastime for the Salahis, who reportedly crashed an awards dinner for the Congressional Black Caucus in September by entering through a door used by servers and busboys. They were later escorted off the premises.) While the Secret Service is investigating the rule-breaking, the guard who mistakenly waved them in explained that he had been duped by the couple's "manner and insistence as well as the pressure of keeping lines moving on a rainy evening," according to the Washington Post.
The Top 10 Everything of 2009
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Art Exhibitions
- Top 10 Awkward Moments
- Top 10 Best Business Deals
- Top 10 Breakups
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Children's Books
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Editorial Cartoons
- Top 10 Facebook Stories
- Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas
- Top 10 Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Ideas
- Top 10 Heroes
- Top 10 iPhone Apps
- Top 10 Late-Night Jokes
- Top 10 Magazine Covers
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Movies
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 News Stories
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Oddball News Stories
- Top 10 Pariahs
- Top 10 Pictures of the Year
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 T-Shirt-Worthy Slogans
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Tweets
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Untruths
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 Worst Biz Deals
TIME charts the highs and lows of the past year in 50 wide-ranging lists