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Love Is In The Airwaves
Can't French politicians and sultry reporters keep their hands off one another? Yet another star presenter has admitted that she's having a dalliance with one of Jacques Chirac's government, and found that she'll be sidelined during the build-up to next year's presidential election.
With journalists and ministers copping off at this rate, there won't be anyone left to read the news.
Despite our Anglo-Saxon sniffiness at the prospect of leading reporters sharing their beds with government figures, it makes sense in a matchmaking way. Everyone hates journalists and everyone hates politicians, so it is natural that these often isolated figures are drawn to one another. It's like tax inspectors leaping into bed with estate agents - who else would want to?
The latest victim of France's suddenly inquisitive press is 32 year old Marie Drucker of France 3, who was photographed this week in the arms of François Baroin, 41, the minister for overseas territories.
Mme Drucker has agreed to step aside from reporting politics for the time being. She fell for Baroin - who was previously married to another journalist - while interviewing him. The Times reports that both are furious at being rumbled and plan to sue the magazine that uncovered their affair.
Drucker should be grateful she's reached a level of prominence sufficient to catch the minister's eye - and once the election is over, she might be grateful of the publicity it afforded. After all, previous lovers of politicians haven't done badly.
France 2's Beatrice Schonberg married "Social cohesion minister" Jean-Louis Borloo last year. She's one of France's top news anchors, but will be keeping her head down during the election campaign. When he was temporarily estranged from his wife last year, interior minister and presidential contender Nicolas Sarkozy was reported to have found solace in the arms of Figaro hack Anne Fulda: She was promptly "moved to other duties" on the newspaper, while Sarko got back with his Missus.
As Charles Bremner notes, both Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Bernard Kouchner, former cabinet ministers under previous Socialist governments, married prominent presenters: Their wives retired shortly afterwards, though Kouchner's wife Christine Okrent and Strauss-Kahn's Anne Sinclair remain regular features in the media. Former centre-right PM Alain Juppé also married a newspaper journalist.
More mysterious is Mr Chirac's relationship with certain female reporters. Mr Chirac is married of course to the formidable Bernadette but Bremner notes that when he was merely the leader of the Gaullist Party and Paris Mayor Chirac paid £17,000 to take AFP hack Elisabeth Friederich on holiday with him.
Perhaps because of the relative dearth of women in French political life, there are few scandals surrounding female politicians. However, some French gossips reported that earlier this year Socialist presidential campaigner Ségolène Royal issued a hand-off warning to a Paris Match hackette who was getting to close to her partner, Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande.
