I Hate Jill Zarin Real Housewives of DC Reunion Part II Oct 22, 2010
Lynda lost her argument and Andy Cohen brought Tariq Salahi to the couch next to his wife Michaele without any of the other men being included. His presence alone seemed to intensify the tension on the set. His first comment was that he was disappointed in the cast for doubting that his wife suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, this couple refuses to acknowledge that many people are doubting every word that comes out of their mouths.
Roll the footage, we watch as all of the rest of the cast talk about the Salahi's financial problems and how word has spread through Washington DC about just how many bills and responsibilities they've ignored. Tariq is the king of talking in circles and when asked about bankruptcy, he throws out two different names for Oasis Winery then doesn't answer about his own personal bankruptcy.
Tariq Salahi gets angry and raises his voice the first of many times as Stacie tries to simply tell this man, "respectable people pay their bills, period." He doesn't want to hear any of it, he insists on telling everyone he simply can't pay his bills because once you've filed bankruptcy, you're not allowed to pay any creditors. Yet that didn't answer Lynda's question as to why he bought his wife a 7-carat diamond bracelet when they were clearly having financial problems. When Michaele can't take the questions anymore, she deflects, this time she blurts out, "why is everyone interested in our finances, why not talk about everyone else's finances?" Well Michaele, none of them are accused of failure to pay for their wedding flowers among many other things!
Andy rolls the clip of the audition tape of Michaele Salahi giving a tour of her home, we learn that this is not their home, never was their home and according to Stacie Turner, this couple does not own any home as there is no deed recorded in their name anywhere. They lied to Bravo in this audition tape and while viewers typically saw them in hotel rooms rather than in any home, they did tell viewers that they owned a large home on or near Oasis Winery. When pushed on the issue of owning a home, Michaele screams at Cat, "I heard you were living in Lynda's basement". Wow! I love that Lynda yelled right back at her, "I don't have a basement". Moving on as Andy kept saying, "we're not going to resolve this".
That is how this couple handled everything that was thrown at them, when faced with legitimate questions that people really want to hear the answer to, they deflect back to other housewives or they respond to a completely different question or they just talk in circles. Not one straight answer from these people was forthcoming. They may have well have spent the reunion filming recited their "On the advice of my attorney, I respectfully invoke my right to plead the 5th...." blah blah.
After a break, The DC Housewives returned joined by the remaining three men, Ebong who is Lynda's boyfriend (were you watching Ebong? Don't propose marriage, whatever you do!) Stacie's husband Jason and Mary's personality, er husband Rich.
While their finances were still on the table to discuss, the house search with Realtor Stacie Turner came up, Tariq Salahi says, "Stacie never sent us an email asking for a letter of credit." Stacie had taken the time to research and drive by homes for this couple who clearly don't have the money to pay for a double wide trailer, much less a home. We all watched on screen as Stacie told them in person that she needed their financials from their banker or a letter of credit, yet she received nothing. The Salahi's didn't apologize for wasting Stacie's time and she let them off the hook by saying, "its fine, it's just fine".
The couple were then asked about the Birthday party for Paul Wharton that they had hosted and we watched during the first part of the season. They never explained the phone call from their attorney to Wharton's camp demanding a letter in writing stating that they would not be responsible for the cost of the party. They continued to insist that they provided all of the wine for the event, while all the other housewives told us they were not served any Oasis wine at the party.
Moving on with the Salahi show, the night that Tariq Salahi accused Mary's daughter Lolly of being involved in the theft of a vehicle and some gear from his Polo club was shown in a flashback. Salahi slurs his accusations "everybody's going to jail". It didn't come up that this incident was two years prior as Bravo doesn't like to reveal timelines, they prefer to edit events into their very own series of events. Tariq pulls out a printout of a Facebook page showing Lolly's comment, she simply asks someone if they wore a particular hat to some club. It was never really explained to the viewers but we assume that this hat that Lolly commented on was one of the stolen items that Tariq was referring to.
Rich Amons, clearly upset by this incident has to actually get Tariq's attention as while Rich is talking to him, Tariq's focus is on Andy Cohen. Rich even provides Salahi with an "out" and asks him to just simply say you drank too much and apologize. Your normal human being would have jumped on that but not this double talker, he sticks to, "IF Lolly wasn't involved, then I apologize". He just won't admit that Lolly Amons was not in any way involved in this theft. No one pushed Salahi about his reference to the FBI investigating Lolly Amons or any of his other wild accusations and no resolution was provided.
I did notice that at one point the editing was poor but Mary Amons was allowed to state for the record that her daughter was not in any way involved in this crime, it was odd because you could hear other noise and other people talking in low voices in the background but Mary's voice as she defended her daughter and attempted to clear her name was the only one you could decipher. Very poor editing but my guess is that it was Bravo's attempt to ensure no lawsuits in the future by allowing Mary to have her say.
The two incidents of White House Gate Crashing ....ok "Alleged" gate crashing were discussed and once again this couple continued to lie and lie and deflect and avoid giving straight answers. They wouldn't even give a yes or no answer to a simple question, "did you have four tickets to the Congressional Black Caucus Dinner?" If you recall, this couple brought the hair salon guy and his husband along with them to this dinner claiming to have four tickets. Viewers were later told that they snuck in the back door where they saw a busboy walking out. It was reported that they were asked to leave the event by security and that they really only had a ticket that admitted one to the event.
Stacie gave it a good shot by trying to insist that they give a flat "yes" or "no" response to the question of whether or not they held four tickets in their hand but Stacie Turner is no match for this talented couple who are experts in avoiding straight answers and talking in circles. Stacie gave it a good shot pushing them but nothing doing Stacie! If congress can't get them to answer a question, what makes you think you can?
Andy Cohen did his homework for this reunion and was prepared with a statement from the Communications Director of the Black Caucus who indicated in no uncertain terms that the Salahi's were not invited and did not at any time hold four tickets to this event. This means that the two guys who joined the gate crashers and the Communications Director were all lying, yet the Salahi's still don't even admit to having legitimate tickets. If anyone watching still supports these two sad excuses for human beings, they're not paying close enough attention.
If that weren't enough the discussion turned to the worldwide news event that caused even Congress to investigate. Once again, Cohen was prepared with some emails that were released between the Salahi's and the White House Secretary. Andy reads as this woman tells Tariq and Michaele that she is trying to get them in but the latest email indicated it wasn't looking good as the venue for the reception was moved indoors due to the weather, causing the guest list to be restricted.
The Salahi's were never issued a written invitation, they were never asked why they said that they had one then later admitted it was all through emails that they communicated with the White House about attending this event. They answered with a simple, "I don't know" when asked why they weren't on the guest list at the first checkpoint and they talked again, in circles, about the two different parts of the event, the reception and the dinner were apparently two different events requiring two different invitations.
Now the Salahi's are claiming that the reception was never in question and that they always had a clear invite to that first part of the event, they were only unsure of the dinner portion of the evening but Michaele did her homework as well and most likely read in the social section of the Washington Post that the Obama's served Lentil soup as a first course. This is all just another way to deflect and flat out lie about what happened that night. There is no doubt in my mind after watching them avoiding direct questions that they were never invited, they crashed that dinner and they were asked to leave once it was determined that they did not belong there.
Not willing to admit that they were booted out of the White House, Andy asked them why then, did they leave early without partaking in the fine meal served. Michaele said, "because they were serving lentil soup". Laughter ensues and then she changes her story to reveal that she wasn't feeling well forcing them to leave early. No one believes a word of that, the Salahi's left the White House and were seen at a local club partying the rest of the night away then at approximately 1:30am Michaele posted photos from the White House bash on her Facebook page.
Let's face it, no one leaves an event like that early on their own accord unless they're bleeding out of their eyes. Honestly for all the answers that we got from this reunion about this incident, this couple may have well just repeated their statement that they made in front of Congress, plead the 5th.
Andy's only goal seemed to be that the Salahi's admitted that it wasn't a publicity stunt for Bravo or a way for them to secure a place on The Real Housewives of DC. Cover your ass Cohen! What the Salahi's did not admit was that their reason for not answering questions in front of Congress was because they were forbidden to do so by Bravo's contract. Tariq Salahi did admit for the first time that he was allowed to answer "some" questions but was advised not to by their attorney, and Michaele added that the White House instructed them to plead the 5th. HUH? Where were the follow up questions to that statement?
This poor couple is still in limbo and their lives have been horribly affected as the case has not been resolved and remains an open investigation by Congress. Don't you feel for them? Personally, I think that Congress is afraid to close the case due to the public scrutiny but have reached a dead end and do not know what to do from here. They will most likely leave the case open until years from now when no one cares anymore, they'll quietly close it and the Salahi's will get away scot free. I would love to see them sharing a jail cell with Lynne and Frank Curtain and Teresa and Joe Giudice.
The Salahi's refuse to admit that their actions have hurt anyone else, they showed absolutely no remorse for causing White House employee's to lose their jobs, in fact failed to even acknowledge that anyone lost their jobs. Didn't care about the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars spent to investigate this incident. No regret about how it negatively reflected on their cast mates. They refused to take responsibility for Cat being uninvited to the White House Christmas party, Michaele even viciously implied that it was actually Cat's husband who refused to bring Cat along yet if that were true, I doubt the man would have brought his father-in-law to the party in Cat's place.
Mary brought up how the Salahi's "hijacked" their show and made it all about them. While Mary is certainly correct, I'm not altogether sure that Mary was the right person to point that out, if the show had been all about Mary, we'd have all been sleeping through every episode. Mary added little to the show.
The final incident discussed happened off screen during a press trip to Los Angeles California. Everyone agrees that Tariq Salahi threw a glass of red wine in Lynda's face and Lynda also admits to throwing a glass of water in return. The argument ensued regarding the cause of the face full of wine. Salahi insists that he did it to protect his wife who's MS causes not only emotional issues but physically affects her health. Lynda, Mary and Cat had entirely different stories to tell and even claimed that Tariq shoved his wife just before tossing the wine at Lynda. Andy Cohen chimed in that he heard that Tariq shoved Michaele as well. Most likely Bravo people were along on this press tour and provided Andy with this information. I really would have liked for someone to ask Tariq Salahi how exactly throwing wine in someone's face protects his wife? Sigh...no one asked him that.
The ladies each had a final word about how they felt about being Bravo Housewives and while nothing shocking came out at that point, I was a little surprised that Stacie said she had a blast and even told Michaele that she enjoyed their time together. I guess Stacie hadn't been listening previously as we learned what a piece of garbage Michaele Salahi is, the worst of which could possibly be lying about having a horrible illness. Could Stacie have gotten bored and switched on her IPod while the reunion was being filmed?
Stacie added that she was thrilled to have found her birth father during the filming yet that would most likely have happened with or without Bravo's cameras, Cat told us that while it was a difficult end to her marriage, she is a survivor and will be just fine. Lynda and Mary added nothing new and Michaele told viewers that she would consider posing for Playboy, but is getting nothing from the book that Diane Diamond wrote about her and her husband.
I found that interesting because reports are flying around the internet that Diane Diamond is supporting this couple, giving them money to live on and to maintain their extravagant lifestyle while composing the book and now while touring to promote the book. Obviously Diane, Michaele and Tariq have not confirmed this information, we watched the Salahi's discuss a book deal with another individual during the season of the show and they clearly had no intention of cooperating in a book about their antics without getting paid. Michaele Salahi's statement that she is not getting any money from the sale of the book could be true, the Salahi's could have already gotten paid a lump sum just to provide their story.
This couple has a gift of making a statement and simply by changing one or two words in their sentence, they can actually lie without really lying, you know what I mean?
Bravo also aired a new episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Watch What Happens Live with Hoda Kotb and the horrible Patti Stanger, blogs on those two shows coming tomorrow.
On a personal note I wanted to share with everyone some great news for me. After I was interviewed about my blog for an internet radio program, they have offered me my own radio show! It is very exciting and I've recorded my first 30-minute show that is now being edited. As soon as it is released, I'll post the link so that you can all listen. We'll be doing it weekly and hope to have some guests on the show from Housewives to fans of the show, readers and posters on the blog as well!
The producers have even created a logo for my show, you can see all of the details here:
http://wp.me/PVOhN-d9
Thank you to everyone who have sent their well wishes, I'm very excited and I hope you'll all listen in each week. We are always looking for sponsors / advertisers for the show, if you're interested, it is very inexpensive and you can email me for details at LynnAHudson@aol.com
Until Next Time...
