excerpt from the NY Daily News
The wanna-be reality TV couple at the center of asecurity scandal White House are known for dodging bill collectors and legal wranglings with relatives, neighbors and kin said Thursday.
Tareq and Michaele Salahi – contenders for the upcoming Bravo show “The Real Housewives of Washington DC kept a low profile Thursday as a brouhaha over how they crashed President Obama‘s first official state dinner grew.
No one was more stunned by the Virginia couple’s nervy navigation around Secret Service than Tareq Salahi‘s own parents.
“My jaw dropped. I was in shock,” Tareq Salahi’s mother, Corinne Salahi, 63, told the Daily News. “I had no idea – he has his own life. I didn’t tell my mother everything I ever did.”
Tareq Salahi, 41, a polo-playing winemaker, and his blond bride, Michaele Salahi, 44, waltzed into Tuesday night’s White House fete dressed to the nines, but without invitations.
Married since 2002, the Salahis have made a hobby out of cozying up to celebrities and burning bridges, neighbors and relatives said.
“We don’t need this,” Tareq Salahi’s mother said of the White House debacle.
Tareq Salahi, co-founder of The Land Rover America‘s Polo Cup, and his parents have been battling in court over control of the family’s Oasis Winery in Fauquier County, Va.
The parents claim they need to sell the 108-acre winery to pay off more than $1 million in debt their son has allegedly tallied. Tareq Salahi is fighting to hold on to the winery, betting he and his wife can turn the business around next year.
His father, however, has little faith.
“They lost the home,” Dirgham Salahi, 82, told The News, explaining that his son’s 4,000-square-foot house in Front Royal, Va., is in foreclosure.
No one answered the door of the couple’s $660,000 home, which remains furnished, and a dog could be heard barking inside. A photo of Tareq Salahi posing with Prince Charles was prominently displayed on a wall. .
Neighbors said the couple are far from royalty.
“Nobody wants to deal with them,” said a neighbor.
Another neighbor said the Salahis were living out of hotels around Washington in recent weeks. The neighbor said the couple’s cars, including a Maserati and an Aston Martin, have been repossessed.
“People come in our driveway looking for them,” the neighbor said. “The sheriffs have come by twice lately.”
Nov 272009
I think the stunt at the White House by the Salahis, was their price of admission into Bravo’s reality show. I think they were aware that they did not have an invitation, all you need to do is look at the camera shots inside the limo just before they arrived at the White House and Oh! yes, when Michaele’s hair dresser asked her for the invitation one can tell she allready knew it was all bulls—! Bravo was in on this stunt from the beggining. Furthermore I think the reason they took the fifth during congresional hearings was that it was in their contract with Bravo and they got paid, and it work to perfection, just look at all the free press they got and lets not forget about the ratings. That’s the money the Salahis are living with as we speak.