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SEARCHAnd so it happened the other day when Tareq and Michaele Salahi showed up before “crashing” the STATE DINNER at the White House right before Thanksgiving. “They were here for 7 hours,” says Gomez who did her make up while stylist Peggy Loakim placed Great Length Hair Extensions and styled her hair. “I even helped her wrap her sari!” he says. “They left from here to go directly to the White House. This is such a scandal.”
Erwin Gomez (www.erwingomez.com) has kind of cornered the market in the Washington DC area on high profile clients including most politicians, their spouses and visiting celebs and dignitaries. Bushes, Clintons, Thatchers, Oprahs, Brinkleys, Bon Jovi's…etc…All have come to his Erwin Gomez Salon and Spa in the heart of Georgetown for beautification. Gomez, an uber make up artist, and his staff of 40, create gorgeous looks from head to toe.
And so it happened the other day when Tareq and Michaele Salahi showed up before "crashing" the STATE DINNER at the White House right before Thanksgiving. "They were here for 7 hours," says Gomez who did her make up while stylist Peggy Loakim placed Great Length Hair Extensions and styled her hair. "I even helped her wrap her sari!" he says. "They left from here to go directly to the White House. This is such a scandal." While he is horrified by this situation, he is still proud of the work he and staff produced…"She is stunning to begin with. I knew I was going to make her look good," he says, "but not so good she could sneak through security!"
Erwin Gomez and James Packard-Gomez with the Obama daughters
Erwin Gomez and James Packard-Gomez with Michaele Salahi
Gomez and team with Oprah
Gomez hates being drawn into this. Since the story broke, he has granted interviews to the dozens of media outlets parked outside his salon, including CNN, Extra, Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight and the Insider. "Normally I am not gossipy and do not talk about my guests," said Gomez when I spoke to him this morning. "I like keeping my guests lives private. But this is a serious deal. We are here to respect our president. Bottom line, I am a citizen and want to protect our president and our nation." Even more unnerving was that the White House called Gomez the day after the dinner to get the number for the Salahi's. "THEY have made me part of the scandal."
Michaele has been a Gomez client for several years but had never tipped and rarely paid her bill. "For this preparation I made her leave a deposit," he said. "She did end up paying after my salon manager chased her down as she was leaving for the White House." Gomez goes on to say that Michaele is "really a nice person. She is so bubbly and charming. It's hard to judge someone's character and it's hard to hate her. But this is really crossing a line."
When asked about the future of the Salahi's as guests of his salon, Gomez says "I'm sure I've lost them as clients. I really have to think about my other guests in the salon. In her seven hours here that day she was quite loud and excited and made quite a production about herself. However, I was honored to be part of her prep. Now I am so disappointed. Now I look at them differently. Even though they didn't pay in the past, I did respect them. Now I realize she lied to everyone. She told me she bought her sari in India. I don't even believe that. I just don't want to be associated with those kinds of people."
While the Salahi's have been all over the news today saying they did NOT crash the party…claiming they were invited…I asked Gomez what he thought… "I think they crashed the party."
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