Informercial pitchman Vince Offer (real name: Offer Shlomi – his father is Israeli), the face of ShamWow and Slap Chop, was arrested last month for allegedly assaulting a prostitute.

Via The Smoking Gun:

Shlomi told cops he paid Harris about $1000 in cash after she “propositioned him for straight sex.” Shlomi said that when he kissed Harris, she suddenly “bit his tongue and would not let go.” Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue. [...] During the 4 AM fight, Harris sustained facial fractures and lacerations all over her face. [...] After freeing his tongue, a bleeding Shlomi ran to the lobby, where security summoned cops. Harris refused to cooperate with officers, who recovered $930 from her purse.

And the requisite mug shot:

Though both were arrested, prosectors have decided not to file criminal charges against either of them. Harris says she is considering a lawsuit. Given that Shlomi has proven himself to be rather litigious in the past, it’s possible he is considering one as well.

Shlomi is an interesting character. He was born in Israel in 1964, and while I can’t find much more about his early years, we do know that he is not just a pitchman – he and friend Chris Watson started out selling vegetable choppers in malls and swap meets across the U.S. to fund the production of their film ‘The Underground Comedy Movie.’

While he was selling those vegetable choppers, Shlomi was also dabbling in Scientology. He joined the church in 1982, and according to the website The Truth About Scientology, Shlomi completed 10 courses over the course of a decade, from 1986 to 1996. (Two additional courses are listed here, under his stage name.)

In 1999, ‘The Underground Comedy Movie’ was released. Shlomi co-wrote the film, as well as directed it and starred in many of the roles. Unfortunately, it was universally panned by critics. FilmCritic.com rated it 1.5/5 stars and described it as “crass, disgusting, and vile,” while EW gave it an F and offered up one of the best descriptions of Shlomi’s looks:

Vince Offer looks like one of those L.A. jerks who thinks that he’s in show business because he shows up at auditions.

According to BoxOfficeMojo, it made only $856 in one theater over the course of 3 days.

Shlomi later filed a lawsuit against the Farrelly brothers, alleging that they’d seen a promotional copy of the film in 1997 and had stolen his ideas and used them in their film ‘There’s Something About Mary.’ In fact, at the end of ‘The Underground Comedy Movie’ on DVD, there’s even a special note directed at the brothers:

via Informercial Hell

But in the end, a judge dismissed the case and ordered Shlomi to pay over $66,000 in attorney fees to Twentieth Century Fox.

Shlomi was “ruined financially” within a few years of the film’s release, and went back to selling vegetable choppers. He took time out to file a $4 million breach of contract lawsuit against Anna Nicole Smith in 2000, alleging that she had agreed to be in the film but had later backed out, claiming it would hurt her career. (Smith said she dropped out due to a breast implant-related infection.)

By 2002, he had earned enough money from his vegetable choppers to market the film. The medium he chose? Informercials. (He says he was inspired upon seeing a ‘Girls Gone Wild’ commercial one night.) ‘The Underground Comedy Movie’ was the first film ever marketed using informercials, and despite the bad reviews, it went on to sell around 100,000 copies.

Shlomi used the proceeds to file yet another lawsuit, this time against the Church of Scientology, claiming they’d orchestrated a “propaganda campaign” against him.

Via Religion News Blog:

He claims illegally selected shots of the movie were taken from a rough cut copy, placed in a report accompanied by scarring comments and distributed within the church. [...] then recruited dozens of his Scientology friends, associates and actors that worked on Underground Comedy to write false and malicious reports against him. If individuals refused to write these reports, they were threatened with condemnation and punishment that could be lethal to their career.

If you want a laugh, check out the press release Shlomi put out to announce the lawsuit. Chock full of ego and paranoia! He even refers to his “artistic expression” in the byline. By “artistic expression,” is this what he means?

vince offer in blackface, via Informercial Hell

In January of this year, Shlomi gave his first interview since achieving fame through his infomercials. In it, Shlomi insists he is still in the film business and does not want to be considered as a Billy Mays-type character. This admission gives new weight to Informercial Hell‘s final impression of him:

It seems to me that Vince Offer thought The Underground Comedy Movie would catapult him into legitimate stardom; when it failed to do so he blamed Anna Nicole Smith, the Farrelley brothers, and the Church of Scientology—overlooking the more obvious explanation that his movie never became a hit because it just plain sucked.

Time will only tell whether or not Vince will go the way of Ben Curtis and disappear from the airwaves, so sit back and enjoy this terrible clip from ‘The Underground Comedy Movie’:

UPDATE 3/31: Gawker has obtained a copy of Offer’s lawsuit against the Church of Scientology.