French Presidential Hopeful Sarkozy To Sue Media For Revealing Lover’s Identity

Sarkozy is France’s Interior Minister, but more importantly he is seen as the leading candidate to replace French President Jacques Chirac in 2007. He had for the past three years, until this summer, been promoting marital bliss with his wife just about everywhere he could.

Mais Sacré Bleu! Paris Match magazine in the summer ran a spread showing Mrs. Sarkozy cozy with someone who was not Mr. Sarkozy. The Sarkozys are now split.

Nicolas has since become close with a reporter from Le Figaro – we can’t give you her name although we could name all the senior Le Figaro female reporters he is not involved with as one radio station did – but the France Soir tabloid has now done the deed and named her (not that those who wanted to know didn’t already!).

Sarkozy’s lawyer says the France Soir article, and any article picked up by any other media that mentions the lady’s name, violates their right to privacy and they are going to court. Does that mean foreign newspapers that are sold in France and mentioned her name could be sued, too? Probably.

ftm background

As Celebrity Magazine Circulations Globally Show Great Strength It’s Not Brain Surgery To Diagnose Why Paparazzi Problems Worsen
Latest magazine circulation figures show that newsweeklies are basically a flat business, but established celebrity magazines are doing better than ever and new celebrity magazines hit the newsstands seemingly every week. And as those celebrity circulations go up, the problems with paparazzi, particularly in Hollywood, are growing worse. Some stars say they are leaving town and others are resorting to hiring several doubles.

Big Baby Gets Dutch Work Permit?
“Big Brother” opens its new season in the Netherlands promising, at least in the season promotion, a live birth. One of the contestants is in the final trimester of pregnancy and would, if not earlier voted off the show, give birth right there on TV from the Big Brother house. Not exactly stunning television. Births have been televised live before, though usually in public TV documentaries.

French, Spanish and Italian Financial Backers Provide Le Monde With Much Needed Financial Support
Look Soon for Big Changes in How a French National Newspaper Gets Marketed.

Knowing the privacy laws perfectly well, why did France Soir name the lady? Well, with its circulation at an all-time low there is little doubt that particular issue did very well at the newsstand. And if it loses a court judgment and gets fined it might well be possible the increased circulation revenue could make up for the fine. And if nothing else, it gets people talking about France Soir again, which they haven’t really done for a very long time. And if the court orders it to make a front-page apology, well, yet another reason to buy that souvenir copy!

Recently Prince Albert II of Monaco took Paris Match to court for identifying one of his past lovers and their child. The magazine splashed the information in two issues – the first issue did so well they went for seconds. The court fined Paris Match €50,000 plus legal costs and ordered a front-page apology. The magazine isn’t saying how much its circulation went up and how much additional income it got from those issues.

Europe’s privacy laws were actually greatly strengthened last year after Albert’s sister, Caroline, won a landmark EC ruling. She had sued three German magazines in 1999 that had printed pictures of her and her children out in public – sitting at a café, playing sports, out shopping etc – things any normal person would be doing during their time off from work. She said the pictures violated her privacy, but a German court ruled against her because she was a “public figure”. She appealed to the European Court of Justice.

Last year that court came down strongly on her side saying basically that even public figures are entitled to privacy, and that no one can publish a picture of her during her private life without her express consent. The court said that to do so within the EC would violate her human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the ruling was directed at her, it could apply to anyone.

The court ruled that every person, however well known, must be able to enjoy a legitimate hope for the protection of his or her private life.

French media usually do not play sex and tell games at the Presidential level. Although Chriac’s wife has referred in her own book to her husband’s alleged dalliances, the media has not gone near that one. And his predecessor Francois Mitterand had a long-time adulterous relationship resulting in a daughter, but none of that was mentioned until he was long gone from office and an ill man just 15 months away from death.

In the French macho mentality, such goings-on by men are considered to be a sign of virility and probably don’t hurt at the ballot box. But to have your wife leave you and for her to be pictured with her alleged new lover -- now what kind of weak man would allow something like that to happen?