More Things Sarkozy: The Son and His Scooter

There's always something with this guy. His ubiquity in the press also translates to ubiquity in my blog.... Sarkozy's quite the text, that's for sure. So, what's the news today?
Well, 'Sarkozy' news today revolves around his aesthetically superior blonde son, his lovely scooter, reckless driving, and that little concept called 'sense of entitlement.'
The premise of the article might seem inconsequential in the beginning. However, it does raise some valid questions.
Here it a bit:
"Jean Sarkozy has also been a beneficiary of his father’s power, it seems. When his motor scooter was stolen last year, the police recovered it quickly, even going to the extraordinary length of taking a DNA sample from his helmet. In 2005, he ran his scooter into the back of a BMW, according to a complaint brought by the car’s owner, M’Hamed Bellouti, who managed to catch the license plate number as the scooter sped away. The police failed to find the scooter, but the car owner’s insurance company did. Nevertheless, in a December 2007 trial, the complaint against Jean Sarkozy was dismissed.

Mr. Bellouti asked then: “Why is there a two-speed justice system? When they steal his scooter, they are full of zeal. When it hits my car, there is less zeal.”
Read more here.
graph per ny times

Carla Bruni: Again

Barbara Walters' visit to Paris this past week had one purpose: an interview with France's First Lady, Carla Bruni. Bruni receives much media coverage not only in France but also all over the world. However, she's not been as ubiquitous a figure in US publications. Till now that is. Bruni is featured on the cover of Vanity Fair which will hit the stands on Wednesday and, naturally, Anie Leibovitz photographed her.
I admit I now read Vogue. I started paying some attention to it a few years ago and this is one publication I actually do get for the articles. Granted, there aren't many words in there but the few one finds tend to deliver, for the most part.
A bit from the article:
"Elected when he was 52, the high-octane Sarkozy is much younger than French presidents tend to be, having begun his political career as a town councillor in Neuilly, a wealthy Paris suburb, when he was only 22. However, his apparent meltdown over his tempestuous divorce from his second wife, Cécilia, after only five months in office, and his very public courtship and quickie remarriage, just three and a half months after that, to a glamorous ex-model and singer who had been involved with everyone from Mick Jagger to the son of famed Nazi-hunters to a former Socialist prime minister, were a bit de trop even for the French. More galling still were Sarkozy’s penchant for hanging with billionaires and his obsession with celebrity—sporting aviator Ray-Bans as he flaunted a navel-baring Bruni on a vacation in Muslim Egypt."

Just why is the world so taken by the Sarko/Bruni union and what could one say about the power of aesthetics?
Read more here.
graphs per vf

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 French Obsession with Sarkozy: A Bona Five Love Story

I'm fascinated by France's Sarkozy and I'm not even a French person.
Many French people are so obsessed with their leader that they're now taking many of their respective obsessions, fantasies, and issues to their therapists' office.
I'm really not joking.
The Times' piece observes:
“As I listened to my patients during consultations, many of them mentioned Sarkozy by name,” Dr. Hefez said. “He’s penetrated some of their deepest fantasies. I noticed all this passion in people speaking of him, and I thought there is something particular about this man — he’s like a reflection of us in the mirror.”
The French project themselves onto Mr. Sarkozy, too, Dr. Hefez said.
“He’s the incarnation of the postmodern man, obsessed with himself, turned toward pleasure, autonomous and narcissistic,” the psychiatrist said. “And he exhibits his joys and sorrows, all his private life, his sentimental doubts and pleasures. He represents the individualism of the society to the extreme, that it’s the individual who counts, not the society.”

Well, especially the last paragraph made me produce a loud, 'holy cow!' when I read it. Could it be basic cynicism or is there actually some measure of truth to this? Granted, there is individualism galore out there but I find it difficult to believe that it is the sole active currency. I've found Sarkozy fascinating from the very beginning. I don't know what it is, really, other than this inherent ability to fuse confidence with inferiority.
Apparently, the French are reading papers obsessively following their leader's private and public life as closely as possible. Many papers are being sold and many discussions are being generated. Oh, yes, and more shrinks are being seen too. Here's how a session starts in my mind:
'So, what would you like to talk about today?'
'I had a dream that I was dating Carla Bruni,' says the hypothetical French patient.
I don't know if the Sarkozy phenomenon is a a commentary on contemporary individualism or a simple example of people being fascinated by foibled and fallible leading figures. Hmm. I especially like how the Times article concludes:
'The Rue89 news Web site asked: “After a year of dependency, how can we stop being Sarkotoxicated?”
As yet, there appears to be no cure.'
graph per ny times

Hyper Sarkozy Likes to Text Message but Keeps Silent on Hich Culture

Chateaubriand once noted that “Taste is the good sense of genius.” France's president Sarkozy is being criticized for what many in France thinking is his apparent lack of interest in high culture.
The NY Times features a provoking spread on him today. It mentioned many things including the following, "the hyperactive Mr. Sarkozy reportedly text-messaged somebody or other while with the pope."
Hmm.
Here is a section from the article:
'Every French president since the liberation has cooked up some such pharaonic new museum or opera house or library or initiated some legacy-minded cultural program, until now. Mr. Sarkozy’s taste is said to be for Lionel Ritchie and Celine Dion. (Mitterrand mulled over Dostoyevsky; de Gaulle consumed Chateaubriand.) The current president’s fondness for showbiz pals, his marriage to the Italian model-turned-singer Carla Bruni and the appointment of a culture minister, Christine Albanel, who is intelligent but widely regarded as weak among Mr. Sarkozy’s ministers, have combined to produce something of a culture shock.'
Full feature here.
graph her ny times