NEW YORK (AP) - Michaele Salahi’s dustup with Whoopi Goldberg was Topic A when the alleged White House gatecrasher and her fellow cast members from “The Real Housewives of D.C.” appeared on Thursday’s “Today” show.
Then, an hour later on “The View,” Goldberg gave her own account in this case of She-said, She-said.
The five “D.C. Housewives” were guests on NBC’s “Today” to promote Thursday’s premiere of the Bravo reality show.
But co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb immediately seized on the shouting match that had erupted after Wednesday’s edition of “The View” between Salahi, a guest along with the other “Housewives,” and “View” co-host Goldberg.
Goldberg, who was not among the interviewers for that segment, had stepped onto the set of the ABC talk show to urge Salahi to discuss the night she and her husband allegedly crashed President Barack Obama’s state dinner last fall. As she spoke to her, Goldberg could be seen by viewers touching Salahi’s arm.
After the show was over, Salahi said on “Today,” Goldberg confronted her sharply, using obscene language and demanding to know if she had accused Goldberg of hitting her.
The encounter brought Salahi to tears.
“I think I started crying,” she said, “because now I have someone that I don’t even know, I’m a guest of their show, and they’re berating me” with expletives.
At the start of “The View” on Thursday, Goldberg wasted no time invoking the clash with the woman “who you may remember from her, let’s say, surprising appearance at a White House party last November.”
When Wednesday’s broadcast was over, Goldberg said, “I was told that she thought I hit her. So I went up to her and I told her that she KNEW I didn’t hit her. And yeah, you know how I said it: choice words.”
Hearing this, the studio audience at “The View” burst into cheers and applause.
“And I make no apology for my choice words,” she added.
Then Salahi’s husband, Tareq, had begun filming the squabble with his cell phone, Goldberg said.
“Needless to say, I really went off, then. And there was even more, choicer words. I mean, they were so choice you could have cut ’em with a knife and eaten them.” `
“I never said ’You hit me,’” Salahi insisted on “Today.” “I said, ’You touched, grabbed my arm.’”
“I didn’t do anything. I went as a guest and I was proud to be there.”
Gifford and Kotb pressed Salahi on the alleged party-crashing episode by Salahi and her husband. She repeated her contention that they had been invited guests.
But after sitting by quietly and more and more impatiently, one of Salahi’s co-stars finally spoke up. Mary Schmift Amons complained that “Housewives” was being given short shrift on this “Today” promo appearance in favor of rehashing Salahi’s misadventures.
“We’re so tired of hearing this and talking about this,” said Amons. “This is a show about five people, not one couple.”
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