Television November 27, 2009
'Real Housewife' Hopeful Crashes State Dinner
The Secret Service is looking into pressing criminal charges against a Virginia couple who crashed the State dinner at the White House on Tuesday night.
Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin tells The Washington Post that the agency is beginning a criminal investigation into how Michaele and Tareq Salahi were able to slide past security at the President's state dinner.
Michaele is currently under consideration as a cast member of the new "Real Housewives" series, "The Real Housewives of DC" -- and the cameras were rolling the night they crashed the party.
Check out some of the nastiest catfigts on "The Real Housewives"
Bravo, the network that owns the series, released a statement to "Extra" regarding the State dinner incident -- and claims the couple told the show's producers that they were invited to the exclusive political gala.
"The cast of 'The Real Housewives of DC' has not been finalized. Michaele Salahi is under consideration as a cast member, and Half Yard Productions (who are producing the series for Bravo) were filming the Salahis on that day. The Salahis informed Half Yard that they were invited to the event."
See raw moments of the "Real Housewives of Orange County" at "Extra"
The show filmed Michaele and Tareq prepping for the party, but did not follow the couple onto White House grounds.
"The producers were filming them preparing for the event and were not on White House grounds... this is a personal matter and that was the extent of our involvement."
There is no word from the Secret Service yet on how the couple evaded security to enter the private dinner.
UPDATE: The Secret Service just told the AP that their agents did not verify that the State dinner crashers were on the guest list for the dinner. A White House official also reveals that has the uninvited guests met President Obama face-to-face.