Michaele Salahi? Bravo, do I have to boycott you?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It’s not like it’s any big surprise — either that Washington, DC, my former adopted home town, is crawling with self-promoters, or that that self-promotion is rewarded. But when I read today that Bravo did in fact cast Michaele Salahi in “The Real Housewives of D.C.,” I died a little bit inside. Not because I or anyone else bought for even a fraction of a second that the notorious White House state dinner crashers weren’t going to end up on a reality show. The network didn’t even really lie wholeheartedly about it at the time. I try to stay away from all of the housewives except for those kooks in Orange County, and it’s a little sad to see D.C. lose another shred of dignity, between this and the “Real World” a couple of seasons ago.

The truly sad part is that I just saw a preview of this season’s “Top Chef,” coincidentally also set in Washington, D.C. — you can bet the farm that there’s going to be some creepy crossover somewhere in there — with its new guest judge, Eric Ripert, who counts D.C.’s Westend Bistro among his restaurants. Mostly I just refer to him as the Silver Fox, but his expertise is definitely a welcome addition, and may even mitigate my reflux reaction to Padma Lakshmi. What’s more is that there appears to be an episode somewhere during this season in which Anthony Bourdain and Buzz Aldrin — ostensibly two of the crankiest men alive — share a dining table. Who doesn’t want to see that? I’m hoping they get into a fistfight.

All of which I will miss if I attempt to live by any sort of principles and boycott Bravo in protest of “The Real Housewives of D.C.” and Michaele Salahi. But with the prospect of episode after episode of the Silver Fox, I’m sure I’ll be tuning in anyway.