All the things I could do if I had a little money — it’s a rich man’s world!
So, the Salahis were all set to go on Larry King Live Monday night — it’s really the de rigueur first stop on the obligatory post-scandal, self-promotion, explain-yourself publicity tour. No worries about Larry asking anything too awkward (unless you’re Carrie Prejean, and everything is awkward) and you can just talk and talk about yourself for the full hour!
But oops — the Salahis wanted money for their story and the CNN sit-down has been canceled. Now they are shopping around. Notes the NYT:
As questions continued to swirl about the pair’s most remarkable appearance to date, a television network executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not publicly comment on payments, said the couple’s asking price for an interview was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “They are asking for best offers from all the networks,” the executive said. Programs quietly pay steep fees for photographs and videos to secure interviews in some cases.
Some news outlets are saying the pair want $500k for their story. Apparently, Tareq and Michaele have some bills.
Michaele Salahi spent seven hours (and zero dollars because apparently she prefers to be comped) at a Georgetown salon getting ready for the big night. Seven hours? Really? (Blog: Meow!)
Inevitably, members of Congress are starting to weigh in as they straggle back to DC after Thanksgiving to tackle health care reform. Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, compared the high-flying interlopers to the shoe bomber and predicted some Draconian new security measures at the White House.
“These folks could be like the — what is the name, Richard Reid, who changed the way everybody travels through the airports because of this one guy. This couple may change the way people go to the White House,” said Bayh, who is scheduled to go to the White House on Wednesday.
