What lessons did we learn from the "Balloon Boy" caper? Oh yes, if you are an asshole aspiring to be on a reality television show, any and every stunt is perfectly acceptable.
Hot on the heels of that fiasco, we have the story of the Salahis who managed to crash the first state dinner held by Barack Obama. Somehow, some way, this couple, with a cameraman and make-up artist in tow, managed to get into a high security function and even post their evening fun on Facebook.
Turns out, of course, that the woman is vying to be on a reality piece of shit show, something about "Real Housewives of Wherever," in which we're subjected to vapid idiots and their uninteresting lives.
I guess because this couple is moneyed, they somehow will think they are above it all, or that no one got hurt, or that at least they didn't claim their child was in a runaway makeshift balloon.
What else do we expect? The bar gets lowered on a daily basis, plumbing new depths of assholery on the part of American citizens who don't seem to give a shit about much of anything else than being on TV. Even now, we're no longer calling it "crashing" or an incredible breach of security, but rather wrapping up such activities under the gentle rubric of "self-producing." It all sounds so innocent, you know? But when I think of someone who is trying every venue to promote himself (or herself), it usually follows being talented at something rather than "look at me! look at me!" sentiment that has seized our collective psyche. I hear of the stories of an outrageous stunt an actor pulled to knab a role, but doing illegal things in order to have your wife on a reality show about a bunch of Pez dispensers with bitch heads? This is what it's come down to?
I sincerely hope that this couple gets in serious trouble, but in this case, unlike Balloon Boy's dad, because they have money, they will be rewarded for their stupidity. Middle class schmucks like Richard Heene get a police record while Washington social elite douchebags will get a show.
We have to have our standards, you know.