Carla Bruni Can Sing, Apparently

While we're not likely to see Carla Bruni perform with the remaining members of The Who for VH1's Rock Honors, we are more than likely to read about her in the papers.
Barbara Walters announced today that she will be interviewing Mrs. "Bling Bling" Sarkozy in Paris thus joining the hordes of other journalists who are taken by the French First Lady.
While I won't be rushing to the store to get my hands on her music, I, mot likely, will not stop from reading the mainstream US and European articles on her and Sarko. Well, how could I not?! These guys are everywhere! Take a number, Brangelina. In France, at least, Sarko and Carla call the shots.
Read more here.
graph per blackbookmag
Well, I thought I'd also include her track Quelqu'un m'ha dit.

The Correct Singular Form Is 'Paparazzo'

In these celebrity-obsessed times the word 'paparazzi' is as ubiquitous as Brangelina-related phenomena.
The correct usage of the word is as follows:

One paparazzo - a boatload of paparazzi.

And the word comes to us from none other than the great Italian film director Federico Fellini. The source is actually his La Dolce Vita.

There is more here:

"The word paparazzi was introduced by the 1960 film La Dolce vVita directed by Federico Fellini. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso). In his book Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian dialect that describes a particularly annoying noise, that of a buzzing mosquito. In his school days, Fellini remembered a boy who was nicknamed "Paparazzo" (Mosquito), because of his fast talking and constant movements, a name Fellini later applied to the fictional character in La dolce vita. This version of the word's origin has been strongly contested[citation needed]. For example, in an interview with Fellini's screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, he said the name came from a southern Italy travel narrative by Victorian writer George Gissing, "By the Ionian Sea." The book, published in 1901, gives the name of a hotel proprietor, Signor Paparazzo. He further states that either Fellini or Flaiano opened the book at random, saw the name, and decided to use it for the photographer. This story is documented by a variety of Gissing scholars and in the book "A Sweet and Glorious Land: Revisiting the Ionian Sea" (St. Martin's Press, 2000) by John Keahey.
per wiki

Pop Culture 'Germany Style'

A most interesting piece on the NY Times observes:

"...it’s true there is a general embarrassment among Germans about being famous for being famous. Unless you are a world-class star, you must be intellectual and appear normal; otherwise you’re considered trash.”

Mr. Poschardt elaborated: “It’s the reverse of America. You can openly be an intellectual elitist here, but materially you must act the same as everyone else. We have a lively pop scene now, but Germany doesn’t have a real pop culture tradition because we killed or expelled everybody who produced pop culture years ago, then we missed out on the next 50 years."
Read more here.
graph per ny times