It seems even if Carla Bruni-Sarkozy had not posed in then nude 20 years ago and now had her nude picture up for auction at Christies, she would still have made the big news and headlines in London during the state visit of President Sarkozy.
The Brits are starved for a new icon. With the passing of Princess Diana back in the nineties, they have never been able to find anything more 'glamorous' to watch and dissect and rave over than their next "Royal Couple", the Beckhams, and in particular Posh Beckham (and how Victoria became 'Posh' is still a mystery to me -- even when I say it with my tongue in my cheek, it sounds like a crudely juxtaposed malapropism to me). And icons they need.
Five year olds in the UK these days, when asked what they want to be when they grow up, will immediately tell you -- not a nurse or a teacher or a doctor or a fireman or even a 'mommy', but "A Celebrity!". A nation where the young aspire to be like their role models, and the role models are the likes of Victoria Beckham and Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the beautiful and elegant new first lady of France was bound to be an immediate hit.
AFP, on the Expatica.com site, sums up the Carla Craze as follows:
British press go Carla crazy as Sarkozy visits 27/03/2008 00:00
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy dominated the British press on Thursday, drawing comparisons to Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy.
LONDON, March 27, 2008 - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's new wife, dominated the British press on Thursday, drawing comparisons to Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy.The former Italian supermodel was pictured on the front page of nearly every major British paper, shown wearing an elegant grey Christian Dior outfit with matching beret.
Sarkozy's visit, his rare address to both Houses of Parliament and an announcement that France will increase its troop numbers in Afghanistan were, meanwhile, almost reduced to an afterthought.
The Daily Mirror probably summed up the mood of most of the country's press when it wrote in an editorial in its Thursday edition, ahead of the second day of the two-day state visit: "President Sarkozy is welcome to come again -- as long as he brings wife Carla." The coverage was a welcome contrast to a full-frontal nude photograph of Bruni-Sarkozy dating from 1993, to be sold by Christie's auction house, published in a number of British tabloids on Wednesday.
The Daily Mail alluded to that photograph on its front page, highlighting its "Picture special on Carla's state visit (and this time she remembered to put some clothes on)", describing her inside the newspaper as the First Lady of Chic".
Robert Hardman, a columnist for the paper, wrote that he "didn't hear anyone discussing the state of bilateral relations.""In her immaculate little grey suit and her pillbox hat, Carla was the only topic of conversation. "I caught two senior British officials engaged in the sort of earnest debate you don't usually hear on these grand diplomatic occasions: were we looking at a new Jackie O or more of an Audrey Hepburn or perhaps, even, a touch of Diana?"
On its front page, Daily Telegraph columnist Andrew Gimson wrote of Bruni-Sarkozy that "many of us decided at once that if we were going to be seduced by anyone, we would rather be seduced by her."
"Miss Bruni (sic) looked as demure as a convent girl, and as ready to be naughty if the spirit ... moved her."
In the midst of the coverage of Bruni-Sarkozy, editorials also welcomed Sarkozy's calls for closer relations between Britain and France, with the Financial Times noting that "both countries could profit enormously from closer co-operation."
"The seemingly heartfelt appeal of Nicolas Sarkozy ... on his state visit to Britain to upgrade the entente cordiale to an entente amicale is both welcome and timely," the business daily said in its editorial.
The Guardian echoed those sentiments, arguing in its editorial that when you "strip Mr Sarkozy's words of their gushing rhetoric ... the message that both Britain and France need each other is undeniably true."
But it was Bruni-Sarkozy who was the star of the first day of the French president's two-day state visit, with a headline on the front page of the Daily Telegraph neatly summing it up: "Sarkozy tries to seduce us but everyone loves Carla." --AFP
-- Listen to Carla Bruni's hit tune "Quelqu'un m'a dit..." on UTube.
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