Two aspiring socialites who allegedly slipped uninvited into the White House for a state dinner Tuesday night were being filmed by a camera crew for a reality television show as they prepared for their headline-grabbing caper.
The Bravo television network, which airs the “Real Housewives” series, confirmed Thursday that Michaele and Tareq Salahi were being followed by cameras from producers of the series on the same day the couple made it into the White House (but were not present for their entry), according to a network spokesperson. The show’s cameras appear to have captured the car carrying the Salahis as it neared the White House complex but did not follow the couple inside, a Bravo official said.
A spokesperson for Bravo told POLITICO that Michaele Salahi is “under consideration” for a role on the show and that Half Yard Productions, which produces the series, filmed the couple “on that day as they prepared for the event.”
“The Half Yard crew were not on White House grounds,” a Bravo official said. “They filmed them traveling there and were done once cars reached the security checkpoint.”
“The Salahis informed Half Yard that they were invited and the producers had no reason to believe otherwise,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail, confirming an earlier report by The New York Times.
White House officials have insisted that the couple was not invited. The Secret Service has said that it is investigating the apparent security breakdown, but the agency has downplayed the seriousness of the incident by noting that the couple was required to go through security screening.
However, experts said that kind of screening, which cannot detect exotic weapons or protect against the threat of a rudimentary physical assault, was not a substitute for a proper background check.
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