Aspiring reality-TV star Michaele Salahi and her polo-playing husband, Tareq, made a debut of sorts Tuesday morning, stepping in to fill the role of TV's reigning fun couple, lately vacated by the Gosselins when "Jon & Kate Plus 8" came to an end.

From an unspecified Washington sitting room (shades of the couch confessionals on "Jon & Kate"!), the Salahis spoke with "Today" host Matt Lauer, up in New York.

They were short on hard facts, but solemn and insistent that they weren't the White House party crashers everybody thinks they are.

Theirs was stark testimony, aimed at softening public opinion rock-hardened against them.

Maybe it was also a desperate pitch to keep Michaele Salahi in the running for Bravo's upcoming reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C." (Was the fact that they appeared on NBC, a sister network of Bravo, more than coincidence? Absolutely not, say Bravo's Johanna Fuentes and NBC News' Megan Kopf.)

For the interview, Tareq, fleshy with an unctuous air, and Michaele, blond and razor-thin, were both garbed in sedate black.

They agreed that the uproar over their alleged invasion of the White House for a state dinner last week has been "devastating" to them.

"Our lives have been destroyed," Michaele declared.

Exhibiting a much different persona than the outrageous social gadfly who would fit into a "Housewives of D.C." sisterhood, she, with her husband, landed several minutes of the TV face-time she apparently craves.

And there's likely an encore in sight: Tareq Salahi promised Lauer the couple would visit him in person on the program "in the next several days" with proof in hand that they were indeed invited guests at the White House.

"We look forward to having you here," said Lauer warmly.

Will Bravo be so welcoming?

Bravo says no decisions have been made on who will make the final cut on "The Real Housewives of D.C."

But for weeks, Salahi has been bird-dogged by a camera crew from the company producing the show. She was filmed as recently as last Tuesday during her preparations for the state dinner she and her husband would attend hours later.

Did the Salahis crash that White House party?

"There isn't anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that," she told Lauer.

The White House, which denies the Salahis had an invitation, would vigorously disagree with her, as would most anybody else within earshot.