Salahi's Snubbed

From the Sioux City Journal.

Press Tour: Meet Tareq and Michaele Salahi
By: Bruce Miller

At a party Friday night for the stars of new NBC shows, the Salahis showed up.
You remember them — they’re the Washington couple accused of crashing the Obamas’ first state dinner.

Michaele and Tareq are featured in Bravo’s new reality series, “The Real Housewives of D.C.” and, true to form, they’re not exactly loved by their fellow Washingtonians. Just feet away from the couple — who worked the room better than more tested stars like Jimmy Smits and Sharon Gless — Michaele’s co-stars admitted it was “very unfortunate” that the Salahis’ situation had to cast a pall on their new series.

“I’ve known them for years,” said Lynda Erkiletian, the co-star who calls their polo club a “goat rodeo.” “They aren’t necessarily close to everyone on the show.”

Indeed, said Mary Schmidt Amons, a granddaughter of Arthur Godfrey, “I’m the only one who is friends with everyone on the show.”
That means the claws can come out at any time and, apparently, do.
When I got to speak to the couple, Michaele instantly gave me a big hug, Tareq patted me on the back and both admitted a book about the “incident” would be coming out and it would explain everything in terms favorable to the Salahis.
“I’ve always believed you have to rise above the people who try to tear you down,” Michaele said. “And that’s what I’m going to do.”
Meanwhile, the others gave her and her husband a pretty cold shoulder.
The “incident”? “We had no idea it had happened until after it was in the news,” Amons said. “It was really unfortunate because it really put our show in a different light.”
The dinner, in fact, came near the end of filming season one.
To get a glimpse of the hoopla, tune into the “Real Housewives of D.C.” It premieres Thursday on Bravo and, yup, it’s in keeping with the other installments in the franchise.