Michaele Salahi didn't hesitate to post snapshots of her White House gatecrashing on Facebook, but perhaps she should have. According to the New York Daily News, many of Salahi’s 11,914-and-counting "fans" have rained insults on the "Desperate Housewives of D.C." hopeful, calling her a "fame whore," a "gold digger," and a "silly, old cow." (Watch Obama advise caution when posting on Facebook) Here, 7 more Facebookers who paid a heavy price for reckless posts:
The depressed beachgoer: Doctors in Quebec had decreed 29-year-old Natalie Blanchard's depression serious enough to qualify her for sick-leave benefits. But Manulife, a Canadian insurer, cut Blanchard off last month after she posted Facebook photos showing her in a variety of gleeful poses, from catching rays during a beach vacation to clearly enjoying a performance by a Chippendales male stripper.
The sprightly bank intern: Kevin Colvin, an intern at the Anglo Irish Bank in Worcester, Mass., told management he needed time off to deal with a "family emergency" in New York. Later that day, he posted photos of himself, dressed as a fairy, attending a Halloween party — provoking his boss to email the shots to Colvin (cc-ing the entire company) with the portentous message "Hope everything is ok in New York (cool wand)."
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The real-life 007: Sir John Sawers was due to be appointed chief of MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, when his wife posted Facebook photos in July 2009 revealing where they lived and who their friends were. The posts were "a most distressing and unfortunate security lapse," Reuters reported.
The conspicuously bored teen: Kimberley Swann, a 16-year-old in Essex, England, was fired from her office job this past February after describing her duties as "boring" on her Facebook page, which her boss likened to a staff notice board. "You shouldn’t really be hassled outside work," said the newly liberated teen.
The imbibing schoolteacher: Ashley Payne, 24, lost her job as an Atlanta high-school English teacher last month after she posted European vacation photos in which she could be spied clutching what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage. "I wasn’t doing anything illegal...I wasn’t doing anything provocative," says Payne, who is pursuing legal action against the school district.
The Sharpie-happy cheerleader: New England Patriots cheerleader Caitlin Davis was booted from the squad last month after the discovery of Facebook photos showing the 18-year-old blonde drinking and posing next to a passed-out woman whose body had been defaced with obscene comments and a swastika scrawled in magic marker.
The (supposedly) reformed drunk driver: While charging Erika Scoliere with drunken driving and reckless homicide in 2007, a judge told the 20-year-old that she could attend classes at the University of Dayton if she faithfully avoided parties and alcohol. In June 2009, police found Facebook photos in which Scoliere is clearly flouting the judge's orders. She has since been outfitted with a bracelet that monitors alcohol levels in her perspiration every hour.
