ShamWow Guy arrested after hotel fight with woman: Smoking Gun

OTTAWA — Television pitchman Vince Shlomi, better known as the ShamWow Guy who has been phenomenally successful peddling absorbent towels and food choppers, was arrested at a swank Miami hotel last month after a violent confrontation with a prostitute, according to a post Friday on the website The Smoking Gun.

Shlomi, 44, and Sasha Harris, 26, were both arrested, according to police reports.

According to an arrest affidavit, Shlomi told police he met Harris at a Miami Beach nightclub on Feb. 7 and took her to his $750-a-night room Shlomi told police he paid Harris about $1,000 and that that when he kissed her, she "bit his tongue and would not let go." Shlomi then punched her several times until she released his tongue. 

The affidavit says a bleeding Shlomi ran to the hotel lobby, where security summoned police. 

Both arrested for felony aggravated battery, but The Smoking Gun says prosecutors this month declined to file formal charges against the combatants. 

Photos on the website show a battered Schlomi and copies of the handwritten police report.

ince Shlomi (born April 25, 1964 in Israel[1]), better known as Vince Offer, is a writer, director, and comedian best known as the owner and pitchman of two sold-on-TV products: ShamWow! absorbent towels and the Slap Chop food chopper.

In 1999, Offer released the The Underground Comedy Movie to scathing reviews. The New York Post said it "may be the least amusing comedy ever made," and Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times described the movie as "a series of sketches built around subjects like masturbation, defecation, alienation, urination, necrophilia, voyeurism, casual brutality, and mockery of the unfortunate". He added that Offer "makes the common mistake of equating the recognition of comic potential for comedy itself. For the successful, talent bridges the gap, but, here, it is absent."[3] DVDs of the film were marketed via television infomercial.

The film also led to several lawsuits. Offer filed a copyright-infringement suit against Peter and Bobby Farrelly and Twentieth Century Fox, claiming that 14 scenes in There's Something About Mary were taken from his own film. The Farrelly brothers responded, "We've never heard of him, we've never heard of his movie, and it's all a bunch of baloney."[4] The case was dismissed with prejudice on a motion for summary judgment by order of the court in 2000, and Twentieth Century Fox was awarded $66,336.92 in attorneys' fees.[5] In addition, Offer sued Anna Nicole Smith for breach of contract, alleging that Smith had agreed to appear in Underground Comedy Movie but backed out, claiming it would hurt her career.[6]

In 2004, Offer, an ex-Scientologist, sued the Church of Scientology with the help of attorney Ford Greene. He alleged that the church had declared him a criminal and had urged its members to commit libel against him. Offer claimed that the church's actions caused him to lose a successful business, as many of his employees were Scientologists who quit upon learning of what the church did.[7]