C’est chic: Nicolas Sarkozy's 'babes’ sashay into town

[Mugu]

Matthew Campbell

Haute couture meets high politics. The French president’s state visit to London will seem like a fashion parade as Nicolas Sarkozy breezes into town this week with his glamorous wife and a cluster of female ministers who have brought their chic wardrobe into the cabinet.

Dressed in Dior for the occasion, Carla Bruni, the super-model and singer who married the French leader last month, is expected to steal the show, but other “Sarko babes” will be doing just as much for French style and fashion at a sumptuous banquet to be hosted by the Queen at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

“We are being royally received,” a senior French official said last week, “and we will do everything possible to show that we are equal to it.”

The female contingent in the cabinet was built up by Sarkozy in the interests of sexual equality and appears to follow him virtually everywhere since his election last May.





Complete article at:
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article3602681.ece

[JohnyCanuck]

1. "Sarkozy's 'cyber spin doctor' sparks wrath on the web"

"Sarkozy's little cop," "Sarkozy's eye on the net," and "KGB Web" are some of the comments and videos posted since Nicolas Princen on Monday joined the president's communications team as an Internet advisor at the Elysee palace.

He is "in charge of monitoring what is circulating on the Web about the president of the republic: blogs, news sites, videos ... just as one might do for a traditional press review," explained an advisor at the Elysee.

His appointment came after a string of embarrassing incidents involving the president became Internet hits, such as a video of Sarkozy's verbal attack on a man at an agricultural fair or footage of him apparently drunk at a press conference last year at a G8 summit.

There are also countless blogs and websites set up to mock or satirise the leader, whose popularity has been plummeting and whose right-wing UMP party suffered heavy losses in local elections last Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080321/tc_afp/francepoliticsinternetsarkozy;_ylt=AjlfyPCwH234fjM2SB08WnkjtBAF

[Buzz Clik]

2. Why doesn't DU have a tabloid forum?

[Mojorabbit]

4. I like these

posts. It interjects a little break from the mostly depressing news.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Agreed. These posts are amusing. Perhaps The Lounge would be more appropriate...

until we convince the Management that a tabloid forum is in order.

[Mugu]

6. I thought about the lounge

but it just didn't seem to fit with the other posts there. This forum is called General Discussion so I felt that it would fit here. It's not like it is preventing something of importance being posted.

Regards, Mugu

[Buzz Clik]

7. Under the present circumstances, this is exactly the place for your OP.

[Botany]

3. Gotta love the French

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. There were some hilarious items in the British press early last week

concerning briefings apparently given to President Bling Bling by officials at the Elysee Palace on the subject of how not to conduct himself on his impending visit.

Apparently, he looked at text on his cell-phone during a private interview with the Pope! Also with the Chinese prime minister in Beijing.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3559430.ece

[1monster]

9. Except for the top picture, those women are wearing dresses that don't suit them

at all!

Part of good fashion is wearing what suits the person, not wearing what is fashionable or the latest fad.

If that is French chic, I'll pass.

[DavidDvorkin]

10. My reaction exactly

[Hamlette]

12. you can't tell from one picture

the defense minister (last photo) looks great and the justice minister (middle pic) might be stunning "in motion" or from another angle.

[Laughing Mirror]

13. Vous avez un bon œil!

The woman on the top is Carla Bruni, Sarkozy's wife. In the middle is Rachida Dati, the justice minister, and on bottom, Michèle Alliot-Marie, 61, the interior minister. Bruni was a professional model, and the other two are simply politicians ... down to their bones!

[tanyev]

11. Oh, yeah? Well, George has babes, too.

Take that, sophisticated French women!