I apologize to those of you who were interested in more coverage of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni’s newborn baby girl, Giulia. I thought I was the only one really interested in Carla’s pregnancy, and most of you were totally meh on the birth. I’m happy for them, though, and it’s exciting from a historical standpoint – this is the first time in France’s history that a First Lady has given birth while her husband is in office (the last time a French leader had a baby was… Napoleon!).

Anyway, these are new photos of Carla, Pres. Sarko and baby Giulia at La Lanterne Park in Versailles today. Even though Carla made it sound like she wanted to keep everything about the baby under wraps, I suspected that she would end up doing some of these happy-looking photo ops with the new baby. After all, Sarko is running for re-election, correct? So it’s helpful, at least with my very gauche, American way of viewing politics – if an American president and first lady had a baby while they were in the White House, it would help them out politically. They would look young and vital and interesting, and women would support the first family even more. Do you think it will be the same in France?

Would you like to know more about Giulia? She weighed seven-and-a-half pounds when she was born 12 days ago. She was born in Paris, and it seems like Sarko wasn’t there for a great deal of the labor. After stopping by the hospital, Sarko then left and continued with business of state, which prompted some criticism that he was basically abandoning Carla and their baby. Carla was also the one to make all of the birth announcement stuff, but on her website, not Sarko’s. Carla wrote: “I am deeply touched by the many messages of congratulations that I have received since the birth of our daughter. [We offer the] warmest thanks to all those of you who sent us these tokens of your kindness.”

Oh, and after all of that talk about how much Sarko and Carla wanted a boy and how she was expecting a boy and BOY BOY BOY, I’m so glad they got a girl. And look on the bright side… Carla is probably all liquored up right now. She’s probably smoking some cigs too.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I know most of you don’t care about Carla Bruni-Sarkozy or her pregnancy, but I’m still very, very interested. Carla is apparently due in less than two months, and I believe she’ll be the first French First Lady to have a newborn in the presidential Palais de l’Élysée in decades, right? That’s exciting, to have a leader who is still having babies with his latest wife. I kind of admire Sarko for letting it all hang out in his personal life. Anyway, Carla has given a new interview which is making big headlines. You will not find Carla waxing poetic about how empowered she is or how babies are the only thing that gives her life meaning. No, Carla finds meaning in her true loves, cigarettes and liquor (and wine). And she can’t wait to get back to her true loves.

Like many heavily pregnant mothers-to-be, Carla Bruni says she is desperate to give birth. But the French First Lady has confessed that her urgency is not driven simply by the desire to see her bundle of joy in the flesh. She is also desperate to start drinking and smoking again.

Miss Bruni, 43, admitted that, after nearly eight months of carrying her first child with President Nicolas Sarkozy, she is ‘totally fed up’.

She said yesterday: ‘Quite frankly, I can’t stand it any more. I spend most of my time either sitting down or lying down. I can’t drink or smoke any more. I’m in a hurry to get it over with.’

The baby – due in six weeks – will be Miss Bruni’s second child. She has a son, Aurelien, born in 2001, with ex-boyfriend Raphael Enthoven.

‘The baby will be viable at any time from October 1,’ the former model told French newspaper Le Parisien. ‘Aurelien arrived on time, which means this could be a long wait, but I really do want this child so much.’

Friends of Miss Bruni told the paper that because she was having a baby after the age of 40, her doctors had urged lots of ‘rest and clean-living’.

The French First Lady has also insisted she will not release photos of the new baby, saying it’s ‘a totally private event’.

However, France’s Marianne news magazine suggested the birth was ideally timed for Mr Sarkozy’s re-election campaign next year, describing the baby as the ‘perfect marketing tool’ for the 55-year-old president.

It wrote: “Politically speaking, the timing of this pregnancy is perfect. It is a ‘marketing-baby’ that will be born just before the last months of presidential campaigning really get going.”

Bruni and Sarkozy met on a blind date at a Paris dinner party in November 2007. They married just three months later at a private ceremony in the Elysee Palace on February 2, 2008.

Sarkozy, 55, already has three children of his own – two sons, Pierre, 25, and Jean, 23, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, and a 13-year-old son Louis from his second marriage to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, who he divorced in 2007.

[From The Mail]

I don’t doubt that Sarko will be helped by the baby – he’ll look younger, vital, vigorous. At least that’s the conventional political wisdom in America, although… I worked on a campaign once where the candidate was a father to a newborn, and many voters said that the fact that he had such a young baby at home dissuaded them from voting for him, because they didn’t think he had any business running off and leaving his wife with the bulk of the child-rearing.

As for Carla and her dreams of (presumably) breastfeeding while sipping on a glass of wine and sucking on a cigarette… well, I’m just amused that she was so honest.

Photos courtesy of Fame & Pacific Coast News.

Last we heard from Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, it was late May and she had confirmed her pregnancy. Sources claimed that Carla was four months along at the time, although I suspected she was further along. That would make her about five and a half months in these new photos, where you can see Carla and her husband President Sarkozy on a “babymoon” in the South of France. I’m glad that Carla seems to be having such a healthy pregnancy, and I have to say, I think she looks better with the pregnancy weight. Sarko looks content too – they both seem like they’re not feeling too stressed out. Meanwhile, apparently the French papers are saying that Carla is knocked up with TWINS?!? It would explain why she looks much further along than they’re claiming.

With their lives about to be turned upside down by the arrival of twins in the autumn, Carla Bruni Sarkozy and French President Nicolas Sarkozy took time out for what was no doubt a much-needed break.

Strolling in the sunshine in Fort de Brégancon off the Mediterranean coast of southern France – the official Presidential retreat – the mellow duo were a world away from the bustle of Paris, and their relaxed demeanours – and even more relaxed dress code – proved they were enjoying their time out.

Wearing a pretty white kaftan and straw hat, Carla, 43, whose slim model figure remains unchanged but for her neat bump, strolled happily with her husband, who had swopped his usual grey suits for a breezy outfit of cotton shirt, shorts and loafers.

Although Carla Bruni is yet to speak publicly of her pregnancy, the rumours that swirled at the first signs of an emerging baby bump need no confirmation now. Now six months into her pregnancy, there is no disguising that there is a baby on the way – or two, if reports from French magazines are to be believed.

Unfortunately for 53-year-old Mr Sarkozy, his summer wardrobe was equally as effective at showing off his own little blossoming bump, as his light cotton shirt blew open to reveal a tiny paunch. Usually trim, it seems that Mr Sarkozy could be suffering from the common phenomenon dubbed ‘pregMANcy’ – where the partner of a woman with child begins displaying symptoms himself.

In this case, perhaps Carla’s husband has been indulging in late night ice cream cravings with his wife. No doubt the President, who follows a strict fitness regime, will be running it off before long. Regardless, the two seemed closer than ever as they took a romantic walk to the beach, their arms entwined.

With a protection officer in tow, the couple took a swim in the Med, Carla allowing a float to take the weight off while Sarkozy bobbed beside her. If this is the couple’s last holiday before welcoming the twins, then it could be the last moment of calm before the storm. It looked as though the couple were determined to make the most of it.

[From The Mail]

I think they seem cute and happy. Politics aside, it must be a great time for them. And I guess we’ve established that Carla is determined to ensure that this baby (or at least one of the babies) is a boy, because only a son would make her life complete, not a daughter. Neither Sarko or Carla have daughters, by the way. Carla has one son, Sarko has… four, I think. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a little girl?

Photos courtesy of Fame & Pacific Coast News.

Finally! We have access to new photos of French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s baby bump. And it (and she) are glorious. Seriously, I’ve never really thought Carla was a beautiful or even mildly attractive woman (although I have always admired her style and the WAY she wears clothes), but pregnant Carla is gorgeous. She’s glowing. Her face has filled out a little bit, and she doesn’t look so Botoxy and cat-like. Her skin is wonderful, her hair is full and thick – she just looks great. These are pics of “the wives” of the G8 Summit, by the way. Anyway, People Magazine claims Carla is four months pregnant now. I suspect she’s much further along.

A picture is worth a thousand words as they say – and the French have been waiting for a month.

On Thursday, France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who is four months pregnant, showed off her baby bump in Deauville.

The 43-year old wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted a luncheon for wives attending the G8 Summit. During a photo session at the historic Villa Strassburger, the former supermodel wore a white maternity shift and a black wool coat, and gestured towards her belly for photographers while posing alongside Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of the Russian president.

She also accepted well wishes and flowers before hosting the luncheon, which raised awareness about illiteracy.

Bruni-Sarkozy’s pregnancy was confirmed by her father-in-law, Pal Sarkozy, who told the German newspaper Bild, “I’m certain it will be a girl, and beautiful like Carla.”

[From People]

So Sarko Senior says it’s a girl and one of Carla’s good friends says it’s definitely a boy. Carla has said she’s hoping for a boy too. God knows. I’m just hoping she continues to have a healthy pregnancy. Congrats to the Sarkos!

(PS…I even like her bangs!)

Photos courtesy of Fame.

For a month now, everybody has been speculating about the French First Lady’s womb. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy stepped out in April looking… bumpy. Very pregnant-ish. Then, last week, Carla’s father-in-law (Sarko Senior) “confirmed” the news in an interview. I bought the odd confirmation, although I’m still kind of mystified as to why Carla and Sarko wouldn’t just announce the pregnancy in a traditional way instead of having Sarko Senior do it. Some of you even had some theories about that, like there could be a question of paternity or something. Which is a funny thought, but come on! Carla is too smart for that, right? If she’s knocked up (she is), then it’s got to be her husband’s kid, right?!? Anyway, the latest news comes from yet another revelation from some close to the Sarkos… Carla is expecting a boy!

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is expecting a boy, a close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed, just days after the French president’s father let slip his daughter-in-law is pregnant.

Jacques Séguéla – an advertising tycoon who brought the presidential couple together in 2007 at a dinner party – disclosed the sex of the child in an interview with a Belgian newspaper.

He told Brussels daily Le Soir: “I have it on good authority that the baby will a boy.”

It will be the couple’s first child. France’s 43-year-old first lady already has a nine-year-old son, Aurélien, with the media philosopher Raphaël Enthoven.

Mr Sarkozy, 55, has two sons, Pierre, 25, and Jean, 23, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, who he divorced in 1996. He has a 13-year-old son Louis from his second marriage to Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, who he divorced in 2007.

This is not the first time Mr Séguéla has filled the public in on the presidential couple’s private lives. In 2009, he gave a blow-by-blow account of how they met at an impromptu “blind date” soirée, describing the scene as an “unexpected game of seduction between two wild beasts”.

[From The Telegraph]

Odd, right? That this dude – presumably a mutual friend of both the president and Carla – is telling everybody the gender and junk. Perhaps Jacques is the father? Ugh. Yeah, I get it. Carla has a sketchy history. But I have begrudging respect for her. I wish more people followed gossip about her, because she’s fun to write about.

By the way, I’m sure Carla is enormously happy, if she is indeed pregnant with a boy. The way she talked about it, and the way her friends and family talked about, it’s like if she was pregnant with a girl, the whole exercise would have been useless. Is that a French/Italian/European thing? So many centuries of being focused on “the male heir”? There’s nothing wrong with having a daughter! There’s nothing wrong with WANTING a daughter either.

Older photos from before Carla was showing, courtesy of WENN.

Several weeks ago, French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy stepped out for a formal event, and everyone was like “Damn, lady, you look preggo.” You can see the photos here – she was definitely carrying some baby-looking weight in her midsection. Anyway, for all of these weeks, the Sarkos have not made any kind of official announcement, I suspect because they wanted to wait to make sure this pregnancy is a go, for real. But now Sarko’s dad is confirming the news:

Grandpa has spilled the haricots – French for beans. Pal Sarkozy, the father of France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy, has told the German newspaper Bild that his son and daughter-in-law, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, are expecting a baby.

Rumors of a pregnancy have been circulating since late April, when the French press spotted the first lady doing some maternity shopping in Paris, although President Sarozy’s office has declined comment.

Pal Sarkozy, 82, added, “Neither wants to know the gender beforehand, but I’m certain it will be a girl, and beautiful like Carla.”

Sarkozi, 56, and Bruni, 43, married in 2008. The former supermodel-turned-singer – who appears in Woody Allen’s latest movie, Midnight in Paris, starring Owen Wilson – already has a 10-year-old son, Aurélian, from a previous relationship.

Sarkozy has three sons between the ages of 25 and 13 from his two previous marriages. Last year, he became a grandfather for the first time. His office did not comment on Bruni-Sarkozy’s pregnancy.

[From People]

Carla has said in the past that she would like to have a son with Sarko, but she already has a son (with that dude that she homewrecked, right?) and Sarko has three sons from his previous marriages. So I think it would be nice if Carla and Sarko had a daughter. Have you ever noticed that most successfully elected politicians have daughters? It’s a real thing. Fathers of daughters are more likely to run for office, and more likely to be elected.

By the way, have you guys been following the IMF president’s sexual assault scandal? In case you were wondering, Sarko is going to benefit from Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s disgrace and possible/probable jail sentence. Strauss-Kahn was the leading candidate for the French Socialist Party, so now Sarko’s reelection is looking a lot easier. Now imagine Carla with her bump joining him on the campaign trail.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

While Woody Allen was filming Midnight In Paris, the tabloids went wild with the speculation that poor Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was such an inept actress that she needed 35 takes to film just one scene that involved a baguette and no dialogue. Now, the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival has commenced, and Allen (along with most of the principal cast) is on hand for the screening of Midnight in Paris, which contains a very wide-ranging cast including, of all people, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrian Brody, and (of course) Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Allen addresses (among other things) those rumors about Carla’s alleged skills as an actress as well as paparazzi fallout:

THR: What led to your casting Carla Bruni?

Allen: With Carla, my wife and I were having brunch with the Sarkozkys about a year and a half ago. I had never met them before. He was very charming, very nice, and then she walked into the room. She was so beautiful, so charming and charismatic, I said, ‘Would ever think of being in a movie? Just a small thing, for fun, for your own amusement. I knew she wouldn’t be available for three months of shooting, but I knew she had been before audiences before, playing the guitar, singing, making recordings. She said, ‘Yes, just once in my life I’d like to do it, so I could tell my grandchildren I was in a movie.’ So I said, ‘I’ll make it very simple, just a couple of days work. Something I know you can do, not something we have to work six weeks on. If you can relax and enjoy yourself, you will be fine.’ And she said, sure, she’d love that. And so she came in. She was no problem, she was very natural. The tabloids kept printing that I was doing a million takes with her, but I wasn’t at all. I was doing the normal amount of takes. I certainly don’t do a million takes with anybody, and I was only doing a normal amount with her. Her husband came to watch her work one night and thought she was just great, beautiful and a natural actress. All of the scenes that I wrote for her are in the picture and she did them well. It was a very pleasant experience doing the picture and very pleasant working with her.

THR: Did you realize when you cast her, she’d be a magnet for the paparazzi?

Allen: We have that all the time, whenever we are working in the street. When I was working in England with Scarlett Johansson, the tabloids were all over the place. When I was working in Barcelona with Javier and Penelope, the tabloids were out en masse. And when I work in New York, and there is someone in the movie of interest, they just come flocking. Here, interestingly, her first scene was in the Rodin Museum, so we had that privately to ourselves. So the paparazzi couldn’t get in there. Of course, then when we were working on the street, they were there, but that does happen. It happened with Marion Cotillard and Owen Wilson just as much.

See, I was really skeptical when the Daily Mail quoted a source saying that Allen “wasn’t particularly enthused” about Carla’s on-set performance. Mostly because Woody Allen never looks particularly enthused about anything. Even when he cracks a smile, the guy looks positively miserable. Anyway, Owen Wilson fans will be pleased to know that Woody wanted to cast Owen so badly that he rewrote the main East Coast character to suit Owen’s West Coast personality:

THR: The movie has a very eclectic cast — how did it fall into place?

Allen: I was certain I wanted Rachel McAdams. I knew that. She had always been what I conceived of for her part. The lead was a more East Coast character in the original script (casting director) Juliet Taylor suggested Owen Wilson. I had always been a fan of his, but always felt that has a very West Coast persona. He belongs very much at home on a beach or with a surfboard. So I rewrote the script, making the character a West Coast character. I sent it to Owen and I was very lucky he wanted to do it. Once I had them, I thought about Marion Cotillard. I guess she is the first person you think of when you think of France and getting an actress who is great in the same sense that when I was making Barcelona, I thought of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem because they are the internationally known giants of that country. The same thing here. Marion is not just a local French actress, she’s a great, internationally known movie actress. And she was available and willing to do it.

THR: Is that unusual for you, to rewrite a character to suit an actor?

Allen: That does happen, and I’m happy to do it if I can get an actor like Owen, who is a strong person to play something. Then I am perfectly willing to rewrite a character if I can rewrite it. Of course, there are some characters that you could never change. That would ruin the story. But very often you can adjust a character. If you have a strong personality, sometimes it requires an adjustment.

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Ideally, Owen’s performance will be good enough that it will help revive his career after it went to the dogs with Marley and Me and Marmaduke, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one. For now and since it’s Cannes time, everyone wants to know whether the Sarkozys will attend the premiere, and even Woody admits that he has no idea if they’ll show up or not. While Carla hasn’t been snapped at the photocall, there’s still time for her to make an appearance at the premiere itself. In the meantime, here’s a look at the rest of the cast and some more on-set photos of Carla’s actressin’ skills.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Fame Pictures

The Mail has some very interesting photos this morning – French First Lady Carla Bruni with her husband, and Carla is looking pregnant. You can see the photos here. Carla has always been whippet-thin, mind you, and in my opinion, if it’s just basic weight gain, she wouldn’t have gained weight ONLY in her abdomen/baby-area. She’s also wearing flats, although that doesn’t prove much, because she often wears flats so as to not tower over her shorter husband, Sarko Napoleon. So… basically, yeah, she’s knocked up. She’s 43 years old, by the way.

Three years after she married Nicolas Sarkozy following a whirlwind romance, Carla Bruni is pregnant with their first child together, it was claimed yesterday. The 43-year-old wife of the French president is said to be in the early weeks of pregnancy, meaning the child would be born before the election next spring when Mr Sarkozy is hoping to win a second term.

Neither the Elysee Palace nor senior ministers have denied the claims, explaining that they could not say anything because the matter was to do with the couple’s private life.
The baby would be Miss Bruni’s second child. She had a son, Aurelien, in 2001 with her then lover, the Paris philosopher Raphael Enthoven.

Her 56-year-old husband has two sons, Pierre, 26, and Jean, 24, from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli, and a third son, Louis, 14, with his second wife, Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz.

Reports of Miss Bruni’s pregnancy appeared in the latest edition of French magazine Closer under the headline ‘Pregnant at last’. The magazine said ministers have been told about the pregnancy, but were asked not to mention it because it is at such an early stage.

Closer has reported similar rumours before, all of which have proved to be false. But yesterday papers including Le Journal du Dimanche, Le Parisien and Le Figaro also published the claims. The Right-wing Le Figaro is particularly close to Mr Sarkozy and would be unlikely to indulge in baseless speculation. Closer is a reputable magazine with excellent sources in the fashion world who are close to Miss Bruni, a former supermodel. Laurence Pieau, a journalist on the magazine, said: ‘We would not have revealed this information without being completely certain about it. This is a risky pregnancy bearing in mind that she is 43.’

In an online report, Le Figaro points out it is the third time in three years that the media has suggested Miss Bruni might be pregnant.

It also suggests that her mother, Marisa, has denied the story.

Miss Bruni has often spoken of her desire to have children with Mr Sarkozy, saying soon after their marriage: ‘I hope to, if I am young enough. It would be a dream.’

Over Christmas she visited a shrine in India and told a Muslim cleric that she was praying for another son.

[From The Mail]

Um… what if it is a daughter? Wouldn’t that be nice too? I mean, considering that Sarko already has three sons and Carla already has a son, wouldn’t it be awesome to have a little girl? Why the obsession with having boys? Ugh.

But anyway, even though The Mail is being particularly cautious, I tend to believe she is in fact pregnant. And I find myself being happy for her. I think Carla really wanted to have another baby, truly, plus she wanted to “secure” herself with Sarko and maybe even the French people – although the French people don’t seem anywhere near as baby-obsessed as Americans, a baby in Palais de l’Élysée would be nice, right?

Older photos – from January and 2010 – courtesy of WENN.

I keep reading about Woody Allen directing a new film in Paris called Midnight in Paris, but the cast seems rather nonsensical to me. There’s Owen Wilson – who I believe is the “Woody” character, plus actors like Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen…and Kathy Bates? Anyway, somehow Woody talked Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, otherwise known as The First Lady of France, into taking a smaller supporting part in the film. I believe this is the first time a French First Lady worked on a film while her husband was in office. Expectations were high. And they’re just been deflated – it seems Carla can’t act her way out a paper bag. Not even in a scene without dialogue!

France’s First Lady Carla Bruni always struck us as ever-ready for her closeup, but apparently that’s not the case when it comes to acting. Some pretty hilarious reports are coming out of Paris where the stunning wife of Nicolas Sarkozy is doing a bit part as a museum curator in Woody Allen’s new film, “Midnight in Paris.”

According to London’s Mail Online website, Bruni required at least 35 takes to film a dialogue-free scene that required her to simply walk in and out of a grocery store clutching a baguette.

An onlooker quoted in the story says Bruni sacre-blew it because she was “struggling to avoid looking directly into the camera, which didn’t impress Woody Allen.” The source added: “The baguette scene could not have been simpler, but Carla wanted to make it a big one.” If she gave Allen a big headache instead, the director downplayed it. He reportedly “was very careful to show a lot of respect” to Bruni, “especially since she was surrounded by bodyguards.”

Allen was “particularly low-key” when Sarkozy himself showed up to check out his wife’s performance. According to the Mail, “he did not look particularly enthused by Carla’s acting.”

[From NYDN]

That’s hilarious. Carla has done very, very little acting, her career was always as a model and as a singer-songwriter, so I’d imagine that she wouldn’t be very “natural” trying to “act” for the camera, rather than “pose”. But 35 takes? On a scene without dialogue? Yikes. Do you think Pres. Sarkozy was like, “So, Carla, maybe just stick to singing and modeling from now on, eh?”

CB and I saw some gossip about this yesterday, and we ended up chatting about cheating douches and looking for wedding rings and forgiveness. That being said, neither of us put much stock into the initial reports of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy were perhaps cheating on each other. It was just something interesting to chat about. But now an obscure story about a possible presidential affair(s) has taken on a life of its own. Page Six is running with the rumors the Bruniis “romantically involved with French musician Benjamin Biolay, while Sarkozy has fallen into the arms of 40-year-old ecology minister Chantal Jouanno”. Apparently, the whole thing started on Twitter (f-ck you, Twitter) and now media sources are running with old quotes from Carla that she’s “easily bored by monogamy.” Merde! Here’s more from Gatecrasher:

Ooh la la!

Reports surfaced Tuesday that French royal couple Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni may both be having extramarital affairs – allegations which, if proven true, will surely knock Tiger Woods out of the spotlight.

It’s rumored that the French President has Chantal Jouanno – a right-wing cabinet member – on the side, while the First Lady is seeing musician Benjamin Biolay.

“The presidential marriage is breathing its last breaths,” French paper Journal Du Dimanche reports. “Carla Bruni is in love with Benjamin Biolay, and the president has found solace with Chantal Jouanno.”

An online French publication, suchablog.com, reported shortly thereafter that Bruni had been a close friend of the 37-year-old musician for many years and is now “unofficially living with him at his flat in Paris.”

Those aren’t the only outlets that have Carla and Nicolas saying a joint “mon Dieu!” Tuesday, Yahoo News France, Le Post and the Global Post, as well as European TV news channel iTele, gave the allegations substantial coverage.

Sarkozy’s spokesman at the Elysee Palace in Paris has said he has “absolutely no comment” on the rumors, but this certainly isn’t the first time whispers have swirled about the First Couple’s marriage. Rumors recently flew that the two are holding on to the last threads of their relationship just until the end of Sarkozy’s presidency.

The intentions of Bruni – who was linked to Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Donald Trump before meeting the French leader at a dinner party and marrying him just three months later – have been questioned in the past. In a February 2007 interview, the then-model admitted she gets “terribly bored” with monogamy – and was painted as a gold digger when she married Sarkozy later that year.

[From Gatecrasher]

Eh. I mean, sure, it’s not like either of them have the best history with monogamy. What is this, Sarkozy’s third or fourth marriage? And Carla used to sleep with any powerful or cultured man she could find. So, it’s totally not out of the realm of possibility for either of them. But I, for one, kind of believed in their romance, at least on Carla’s part. I thought she really adored Pres. Sarkozy, and had “changed”. But, as I said to CB yesterday, that’s probably all very American and middle-class of me. I hate to make such a broad cultural stereotype, but having an affair isn’t the end of the world (or a marriage) in France. But if that’s the case, why is everyone getting in such a tizzy about the affair rumors? Because the Sarkozys are good copy, they’re good gossip, and it’s fun. Let’s hope that’s all it is.