Jack Gruber

DC Housewife Michaele Salahi

After a rocky start with the Bravo PR folks thinking they were at an address in Georgetown (they were actually in Chevy Chase, MD) waiting for myself and a reporter to connect, I finally hooked up with Michaele Salahi after a long cab ride to Maryland and spent a few hours with the DC Housewife and infamous White House party crasher.

A great idea of spending the day with Salahi shopping coordinated with Bravo was dashed pretty quickly when none of the stores Salahi was planning to shop that day had been informed media would be along for the ride. Jimmy Choo and Saks and Gucci not big fans of photos inside the stores. After watching lots of nice pictures lost inside Jimmy Choo and Gucci, I actually was able to recupe and make OK images in between the down time walking with Salahi between shops.

With all of the location and access confusion and hassle, I could have just bagged the whole assignment. But who am I to throw a Hollywood style tamtrum?

Secretly, I am a big fan of the Bravo series and my wife and I DVR each episode.

Did I just say that out loud?

After the shopping spree at The Collection in Chevy Chase, MD,  our little entourage hopped into Salahi’s white limo and we cruised down to Georgetown for a hair and makeup adventure I am sure USA TODAY reporter Olivia Barker is going to be talking about for a long time.

Arriving at the Roche Salon in Georgetown, things couldn’t have been more inviting. Owner Dennis Roche was about as nice as they come and the atmosphere was great. Best, no hassle about photos while working on Salahi’s DC Housewives premier party hair.

While Michaele was having her hair done, I was able to set up and do a quick USA TODAY video feature we call “5 Questions”.  It is very entertaining.

Halfway through the appointment at the Roche Salon, Michaele decided USA TODAY reporter Olivia Barker needed to find out how applying makeup with an airbrush felt firsthand. Olivia was a trooper and kept the notepad ready and fired away with the questions while the airbrushing was underway.

I had no idea what to expect from this assignment. To be honest, Michaele Salahi was nothing short of gracious even when it might have appeared I was photographing from an angle that might reveal just a bit more than her already super short Herve Leger was attempting to conceal. Love or hate, it was a fun way of giving readers of USA TODAY a brief glimpse into the life of Michaele Salahi, perfectly cast as a reality TV star.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Blog, On Assignment and tagged with celebrity, Nikon D3S. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.