Tareq and Michaele Salahi entered our lives when they arrived at a White House state dinner in December 2009, although their presence was allegedly not requested. The couple, dubbed the "White House crashers," met President Obama and later showed off photos with Vice President Joe Biden and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Spencer Pratt pulled a "Salahi" when he attempted to crash the less prestigious afterparty for The Hills finale in June, but MTV's security was seemingly tighter than at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The show's former star disguised himself as an old man (beard and all) in an effort to celebrate the end of the series that satiated his immense appetite for fame. He was eventually escorted from the Roosevelt Hotel by security officers, the New York Daily News reported.
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It's still only a rumor that Michaele Salahi will be stripping down for Playboy (TMZ claims the alleged 44-year-old will go "full-frontal"), but Heidi Montag has already beaten her to that publicity stunt. The Jesus-loving star of The Hills posed as the cover girl for the September 2009 issue. In the issue, she and her then-husband Spencer Pratt interviewed each other, during which Montag claimed that, thanks to Pratt, she has 20 to 30 orgasms each day. "[I] want to try every new thing, doing it all kinds of ways—indoors, outdoors, upside down," she said.
Why wouldn't both the Salahis and Speidi be fans of America's most upper-crust sport? Polo is typically associated with high society—the echelons of which Michaele and Tareq and Heidi and Spencer are constantly trying to reach. The Salahis started the annual America's Polo Cup event in 2007, which is touted as the "best sporting experience… in the United States and considered the best in the world by the highest standards of polo," according to The Washington Post. Though Montag and Pratt haven't been so bold as to start their own event, the couple did spend an October afternoon a few years ago taking in a polo match at the Santa Barbara Polo Club. Perhaps one day they can double date for some good, old-fashioned divot stomping.
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Tareq and Michaele Salahi's lives have been riddled with legal woes, but one of their most complicated money mishaps involves his mother, Corrine Salahi. After health problems caused his father to step down from the family's troubled Virginia winery, Oasis, in 2005, mother and son have been involved in a bitter battle over ownership. When he and Michaele invited their Real Housewives of D.C. castmates to the property, Corrine called the police, claiming they were trespassing. Of course, this was all caught on camera during the most recent Real Housewives episode. "My mom's just jealous," Tareq said. "She'd do anything to strip anything from Michaele and I." Heidi Montag has also had her fair share of drama with her mother, Darlene Egelhoff. The two have had a rocky relationship since Montag started dating Pratt, and things escalated after her notorious plastic surgeries. When Egelhoff showed up unannounced at the couple's L.A. home in May, Montag called the police and later explained to People, "She knows I have no interest in seeing or talking with her."
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It's no secret that the Salahis are fond of the first family, even if it's hard to understand them sometimes. Michaele Salahi eloquently told Real Housewives of D.C. viewers in the series' second episode, "I think [Obama] is all about bringing us all together and letting go [pause] and there will be those mind-sets that's what makes up the world and you know we're all different." Instead of crashing the president's party, Speidi took a different approach to express their Obama adoration. Though the politically conservative couple claimed they voted for Sarah Palin and John McCain in 2008, Montag and Pratt jumped on the Obama bandwagon two days before his inauguration in January 2009, wearing his image and shirts proclaiming "Barack ‘N' Roll" during an L.A. bike ride.
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In addition to claiming she used to be a Washington Redskins cheerleader—a fact that many doubt—Michaele Salahi also told a Florida-based polo magazine in December '08 that she was a former Miss USA . But pageant officials told The Washington Post that there is "no record" of Salahi winning that beauty crown. The pageant's owner and expert, Donald Trump, agreed, telling the Post, "She couldn't have been a former Miss USA if she'd tried." Heidi Montag has yet to wear a crown, but the aspiring pop star did perform her song "Body Language" at Miss Universe in 2009. "This is such a miracle in life and I give thanks to God every day for this once in a lifetime opportunity," she said of her first-ever "live" gig.
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Although many are tuning into the Salahi drama on Real Housewives of D.C. and The Hills was once MTV's biggest program, neither can compete with New Jersey. D.C. hooked 1.6 million viewers for its first show, well below Real Housewives of New Jersey's premiere episode, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Garden State installment's finale in August pulled in a whopping 3.4 million viewers. And while The Hills was once MTV's crown jewel, Snooki and The Situation have taken over Speidi territory. According to Variety, 2.7 million viewers tuned into the L.A.-based drama, while 4.5 million were glued to Jersey Shore earlier this year.
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Heidi Montag's breast augmentation was just the beginning of her cosmetic enhancements—the reality-TV star eventually also got Botox, an eyebrow lift, ear pinning, a nose job, cheek implants, lip injections, and shaved down her chin, and admitted it all in January. At one point she wanted her breasts to reach a size H—"for Heidi." Her blond counterpart is also looking to go bigger. While slipping into a string bikini for InTouch Weekly, Michaele Salahi said that she's "definitely" open to plastic surgery. "It would be great to have boobs," she told the tabloid. "I'm a B [cup], so I'd get a C. I'm all for anything you can do to make yourself look and feel better."
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The Salahis' and the Pratts' fame-hungry attitudes nabbed them plenty of media coverage, but not everyone is a fan. One still-active Facebook group is called "Boycott The Real Housewives of DC/Michaele Salahi." At the height of their overexposure stage in June 2009, E! announced they were no longer covering "the misadventures of Speidi until the pair does something truly newsworthy." They made the decision after a whopping 94 percent of its site's participants said they were tired of The Hills stars. Apparently, the ban continues: This week, a viral video of Pratt shaving his "flesh-colored beard" (a term coined by E!'s own Joel McHale, host of The Soup) did not make it on to the website.
One wedding date wasn't enough for the Salahis or Spencer and Heidi. On Michaele and Tareq's guest list was Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who joked to the New York Post that he wanted "to issue subpoenas to the bridge and groom… because their nuptials and been postponed and rescheduled four times." Though the Salahis only hosted one wedding, the Pratts dragged on their marriage celebration for nearly six months. The couple had an impromptu ceremony in Mexico at the end of 2008, but it wasn't legal in the United States. They nearly wed again in a Los Angeles court with Pratt's sister Stephanie as a witness, but decided to hold off until friends, family and, most importantly, a camera crew could be there. The couple legally wed in April 2009 at a Presbyterian church in Pasadena. Despite filing for legal separation over a year later in June 2010, the couple was recently seen kissing this month. Could a fourth wedding be on the way?
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Education isn't a priority when you're looking to make a career on reality TV. Although Michaele Salahi's wedding announcement described her as a graduate of King's College, The Washington Post revealed she only attended the Pennsylvania school for the 1989-1990 academic year. Heidi Montag actually attended two colleges—the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2004 (where she met Lauren Conrad, her future co-star and frenemy on The Hills) and then the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in 2005. But she didn't graduate from either school. Montag left FIDM in 2006 after struggling to show up for classes (a fascinating storyline that delighted viewers) and instead, took a job at the Los Angeles PR firm Bolthouse Productions, which she quit two years later.
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In what other nation would these people become so famous they're known on a first-name basis? Michaele and Tareq Salahi showed off their pride for their country when they showed up at the White House state dinner in November 2009—invited or not—and Heidi and Spencer displayed their American spirit on the Fourth of July earlier that year. The couple participated in the Palisades 10K Charity Run in California in full red, white, and blue garb. And Montag, as plastic surgery's unofficial spokesperson, had another reason to bless the U.S.A. after her surgeries this year. "I have never felt sexier, happier, or more amazing in my own skin," Montag explained on Twitter. "I truly look the way I have always dreamed, I love America and freedom!"
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