A cynic would argue that you don't need to do much to get famous in today's era of Youtube and reality TV. And this trend has apparently now extended to the auction block, if the Potomack Auction Company's recent sale in Alexandria, Virginia, is anything to go by...
The sold item in question was a sari worn by Michaele Salahi, star of the Bravo network's reality series The Real Housewives of Washington DC. She and her husband, Tareq, made global headlines when they successfully 'gate crashed' a White House event in November, 2009.
After successfully getting through the magnetometers and other levels of security screening, the cheeky pair joined the 400 invited guests in line, even going so far as to greet President Barack Obama (as shown in the below official White House photograph).
Almost a year later, the Salahis are still enjoying notoriety from their stunt, culminating in the sale of Michaela's sari for $7,000. According to reports, James Packard-Gomez, CEO of the salon Erwin Gomez Salon, was the lucky winning bidder.
 He won't be smiling when he finds out... 'White House Gate Crashers' |
Yet 'reality TV' culture clearly isn't to everyone's tastes. Company founder Erwin Gomez soon released a statement distancing himself from the buy, and accusing James of "Using my name to get publicity out of this.
"I'm in shock... The purchase didn't have anything to do with me, it's the last thing I want," news source the Politico quoted him as saying.
But at least the money went to a good cause. Proceeds from last Saturday (October 2) morning's sale were reportedly donated to multiple sclerosis research.
Meanwhile, Bravo's producers have since claimed that the Salahis were told that they'd been invited to the Whitehouse event. Both stars claimed no wrong doing, but refused to testify at the subsequent inquiry according to press reports.
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