Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Sarko leaving? For the UK?

Taxes must really be awful in France that the UK’s looking good by comparison,
Sarkozy’s plans ‘to dodge new 75% French tax rate by moving to London with wife Carla and setting up £1bn private equity fund’
Fraud police found details of move and business plan in raid on home
Sarkozy is under investigation for corruption in France
He will be latest Frenchman to escape potential top French tax rate of 75%
Couple would become London’s most high profile Gallic celebrities
Sarkozy would hope for fund support from French entrepreneur Alain Minc

I thought a ‘£1bn private equity fund’ would be more of a Villepin thing, but, hey, we’re living in hard times.

No word if the perineum is getting a workout.

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Carla Bruni pregnant, in time for the next election?

carlasarko

Bloomberg headline: Sarkozy’s Wife Fends Off Questions on Speculation She’s Pregnant

French first lady Carla Bruni- Sarkozy, the 43-year-old wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, again fended off questions on whether she’s pregnant.

“You are doing your job in asking, and I’m doing my job in not responding,” she said today in an interview with Paris- based RTL Radio. “I try to protect my private life as best I can. I think people understand.”

She declined to answer a similar question in an interview in the Le Parisien newspaper earlier this month. Speculation that Bruni-Sarkozy is pregnant was first reported in celebrity magazine “Closer.”

If true, Italian-born Bruni-Sarkozy’s baby would be the first for a French incumbent head of state since Empress Eugenie gave birth to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte at the Palais des Tuileries in Paris 155 years ago. Sarkozy may seek a second term in the May 2012 presidential election.

So far, it looks like Sarko’s going to have to wait until after the baby’s born for a bounce, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s ‘pregnancy’ fails to bring husband baby bounce
Nicolas Sarkozy has held on to his title of the most unpopular president in the history of the Fifth republic, dashing any hopes of a Bruni-Sarkozy baby boost to his re-election chances. There’s still time, though,

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy is said to be preparing for an October delivery just seven months before France goes to the polls for the 2012 presidential elections.

particularly if she has twins, as long as the Sarkos don’t overdo the lifestyle bit,

His champagne lifestyle with Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, a multi-millionaire heiress, is also known to have made him intensely unpopular.

Perhaps the Sarkos are taking a hint from the “champagne lifestyle” critics – apparently Carla’s 300euro shopping trip is being described as a “shopping spree”. Back in the day 300 euros would have been enough to pay for 1 blouse, if that.

And there’s no point in firing the newsmen, either, even when they call him a child-king and her a maneater. The advertisers are already having fun with the pregnancy, which is yet to be officially confirmed.

En fin, maybe all that perineal tectonic training was well worth the effort.

Sing it, Carla!

Blogging on more serious topics shall resume shortly.

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Life ain’t hell to Michelle, says Carla

In today’s episode of the Real Desperate Housewives of the Heads of State, after a book came out claming that Michelle Obama said that her life is hell,
Bruni denies Michelle Obama likened White House life to ‘hell’

France’s first lady Carla Bruni denied Monday that her U.S. counterpart ever told her that life in the White House was “hell.”

“Of course Michelle Obama never said such a thing,” the former model told CNN at the French mission in Midtown. She arrived Monday at the United Nations on the arm of her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was attending a summit on global development.

Of course.

Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama are starting to be as amusing as Prince Charles.

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‘Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!’ UPDATED

World-Famous Fashion Icon and Busy Mom Michelle Obama™ told Carla Bruni it’s not easy being queen:
‘It’s hell. I can’t stand it!’ Carla Bruni reveals what Michelle Obama REALLY thinks of being First Lady

Michelle Obama thinks being America’s First Lady is ‘hell’, Carla Bruni reveals today in a wildly indiscreet book.

Miss Bruni divulges that Mrs Obama replied when asked about her position as the U.S. president’s wife: ‘Don’t ask! It’s hell. I can’t stand it!’

I think we can help Michelle Obama out in the next Presidential election, but Ed Driscoll wants to know

How will it all play out on the campaign trail this month and next, where Obama had apparently hoped his wife would be an asset during the midterms?

Hopefully not well.

After all, I want to get my fries and eat them, too.

But instead be prepared for the media toadies to present Michelle as a victim: her self-sacrifice should be appreciated by all of us thankless “little people”.

Would you like some fries with that?

UPDATE
Well, that sure didn’t take long:
Michelle Obama: French Embassy said she never told Carla Sarkozy life is “hell”

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All showbiz, all of the time

Anyone who had any doubt what Carla Bruni is about should just read this,
Woody Allen starts Paris shoot with Carla in the wings

Director Woody Allen began shooting his latest movie in Paris on Monday, with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy waiting in the wings to take her first major film role.

Despite a starry cast including Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard and American talents Owen Wilson and Kathy Bates, pre-publicity for “Midnight in Paris” has focused on the supermodel-turned-singer’s big screen debut.
…
Bruni-Sarkozy revealed last year she had been invited by Allen to feature in the film, but President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 42-year-old wife admitted she is not an experienced actress and is not quite sure what to expect.

“I’m not an actress at all. Perhaps I’ll be completely hopeless but I can’t miss an opportunity like this one. When I’m a grandmother I’d like to be able to say I made a film with Woody Allen,” she told an interviewer.

Tearing herself away from film parts and tectonic training, Carla found time to entertain foreign dignitaries last week, among them big-haired Chantal Biya, first lady of Cameroon:

No word as to whether the two first ladies headed out for Big Macs after the official Bastille Day ceremonies.

In other presidential showbiz news, after flying the dog in a private plane, the Obamas completed a speed vacation, where they went out for ice cream.

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Citroen pokes more fun at Sarko’s height

Being a head of state while you’re only 5’5″ must be tough, even when your wife is 5’10”:

People joke about your stoop:

And use your height in car ads:
German ad pokes fun at Sarkozy’s height:

Car rental company Sixt makes fun of Nicolas Sarkozy in a poster advertising campaign. Will the French president see the funny side?
There could be trouble ahead for the car rental company Sixt following its latest advertising campaign.
A German poster for the company carries a picture of the French hatchback the Citroën C3 with the slogan encouraging customers to “Do the same as Madame Bruni, choose a small French model” ((“Machen Sie es wie Madame Bruni. Nehmen Sie sich einen kleinen Franzosen”).

Here’s the ad:

Obviously they didn’t realize what it means when a short man is with a tall woman…

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The plot against Carla & Sarko?

Not part of the vast right wing conspiracy, at least, but part of the vast French soap opera readers of this blog know I’ve been following for a while:

French First Lady Quells Talk of Plot

France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, went on national radio Wednesday evening to quell talk that an international plot was behind recent infidelity rumors within the presidential couple.

“We’re not victims of any kind of plots,” Ms. Bruni-Sarkozy said in an interview with French radio Europe 1. “I came here to prevent a matter of no importance taking on proportions that I find ridiculous.”
…
Earlier this week, two people close to Mr. Sarkozy—lawyer Thierry Herzog and communications adviser Pierre Charon, who also manages the presidential hunting grounds—said the rumors could have been the product of a plot, planted to discredit France’s president or move financial markets at a time Mr. Sarkozy was promoting new global financial regulations.

This is starting to smell,

Their comments, made in separate interviews with French media, created a distraction for the administration of Mr. Sarkozy, who had just pledged to return his focus on reducing unemployment after his ruling party had been thrashed in regional elections last month.

The plot theory also unleashed a political witch hunt, as various allies to Mr. Sarkozy pointed fingers at each other. On Wednesday morning, Rachida Dati, who was Mr. Sarkozy’s Justice Minister until last year, went on radio and denied playing any role in spreading rumors about the president. “This must stop,” she told French radio RTL.

Uh-hu.

Would Sarko be above creating this brouhaha?

You decide.

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Sarko does Columbia, heads to DC

Bringing his own color-coordinated lectern yesterday, Sarko made a media appearance in front of a friendly audience, the Columbia University World Leaders forum,

Columbia organizers said the French provided their own white lectern and light gray rug for the speech, and also requested a special espresso machine.

The podium and rug complemented the color-coordinated French first couple – including his black suit and white tie and her wraparound black top, gray skirt and black-and-white umbrella.

In a change from the usual protocol, Sarkozy entered the Low Library by walking up the middle of the grand staircase that faces the Columbia campus, instead of from behind a gold curtain like most other speakers.

While at it he asked for more government intervention,

“The world needs an open America, a generous America, an America that shows the way, an America that listens,” he said, calling on the U.S. to champion firm regulations of financial systems, from tax havens to hedge funds.

So much for his old days of being a leader interested in promoting free enterprise.

Sarko and Carla made a big show of affection for the media,

After arriving in New York on Sunday, the presidential couple left their hotel with arms wrapped around one another, smiling for cameras and kissing before going to lunch at the Boathouse restaurant in Central Park with Sarkozy’s son from his second marriage, 12-year-old Louis, who goes to school in New York.

There are [LANGUAGE WARNING: LINK NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK] rumors about the marriage.

Let’s hope the perineal training was worth it and things work out between the two.

Meanwhile, Carla and Sarko are having dinner with Michelle and Obama tonight. Michelle Obama’s Mirror hopes Carla wears underwear.

Sometimes the news cycle outdoes the tawdry reality shows in the battle of the botox. This is one of those times.

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