It seems that President Sarkozy is losing his shine with French voters, his approval rating having slipped seven per cent in a recent poll, putting him below 50 per cent. This is not a surprise – on top of economy worries, the initial wave of optimism that follows a ‘change’ election (also see Blair, Tony, and possibly Obama, Barack) cannot be sustained. (The exception that proves the rule is Vladimir Putin – nearly a quarter of Russians reportedly favoured altering the constitution to allow the Russian President to remain in power for a third term, which he effectively has – although this may be a lesson in something else entirely.)
Perhaps what gets their back up is the premier cavorting across Europe and the Middle East with his new first lady-in-waiting, Carla Bruni. Such is his apparent abandon to this relationship, that photos of what appear to be love handles have surfaced in the media (they were noticeable by their absence last summer). The fact that he has been off in Sharm El Sheikh, where the smoking ban does not apply, cannot have helped. Sarkozy puffs away on his Cubans while a crabby nation shivers and reaches for the Nicorette.
The image of the President as international playboy needed little polishing, but now it emerges that he has sired a son to the hip hop biz (or, as they say in France: ‘le ‘ip ‘op’). Twenty-two-year-old Music producer Mosey, real name Pierre Sarkozy, has a slot on MySpace where he plugs his estimable wares and allows pride of place for a picture of himself and Timbaland. One can only imagine what the usually deferential French media might make of his son’s choice of social circle in the Paris ‘ghettos’ come the next election.
Such libidinosity may be expected in the world of politics, and even music – but ballet? That most elegant of athletic pursuits? Read the autobiography of celebrated Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, formerly of the English National Ballet, and you may get a rather different perspective. As Jenny Gilbert speculates in The Independent, Acosta’s well described ‘energetic sex life’ may be a necessary balancing tool for a red-blooded male who spends much of his time flinging nubile young dancers hither and thither.
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 