You know Michaele and Tareq Salahi as the "White House gate-crashers," and in August you can see them in Bravo's "Real Housewives of Washington, D.C."
But investigative journalist Diane Dimond is working on a new book that she says will not only disprove that the high-society couple crashed President Obama's first state dinner, but will also reveal why the White House chose not to clear their names.
Dimond met the Salahis when she was assigned to interview them for "Entertainment Tonight." Having covered the White House in her career, Dimond said the story that the politically connected couple had broken into the White House never sat right with her. So she called Washington insiders.
Complicating the matter was that the Salahis were under contract with Bravo and could not speak publicly about the events, Dimond said. Although Bravo declined to comment for this article, Andy Cohen, the network's senior vice president of original programming, blogged on June 14 that production on the series had begun months before the incident, and noted that the show's cameras followed the Salahis as they arrived at the White House gate.
"The moment dawn broke over Washington on Nov. 25, the day after the state dinner, this couple was being called 'the gate-crashers,'" Dimond said. "At 1:38 p.m., an e-mail went to the Salahis from a White House staffer saying, 'Oh golly, we hope you enjoyed yourself. Thank you for coming.' That's not an exact quote but you get what I mean. That's not the type of e-mail you send to somebody who has trespassed."
Dimond's agent is shopping the book proposal to publishers. The Salahis are cooperating, but Dimond said she is writing it alone and not on their request.
"It's not going to be a valentine to the Salahis, but it is going to tell you this complicated tale of how these high-society people got so ensnarled in this controversy."
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