With all due respect to French women:
"French president threatens to sue over reports of an affair; Hollande doesn’t deny allegations in tabloid account" by Scott Sayare | New York Times, January 11, 2014
PARIS — An angry President François Hollande of France on Friday said he was considering legal action against a glossy tabloid that published an account of his purported affair with a 41-year-old comic actress who campaigned on his behalf in the presidential election of 2012.
In a statement to Agence France-Presse, Hollande, 59, said he “profoundly deplores the violations of the respect of private life, to which he has the right, like any citizen.” He condemned the magazine, Closer, but notably did not deny its assertions. The statement said he was weighing possible action, including via the courts.
I wish he got so angry and animated over the NSA dragnet.
How do you say fraud in French?
Hollande is not married but is in a public relationship with another woman. Closer, a weekly tabloid that in 2012 drew the British royal family’s ire for publishing topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, published a collection of photographs that it said documented Hollande’s late-night meetings with the actress, Julie Gayet, in an apartment building in Paris.
So what else is occurring in France that people must be distracted this way by their propaganda pre$$?
A woman whom the publication said was Gayet is seen arriving at the apartment block at night.
The pictures then show the arrival of a man resembling Hollande’s bodyguard. A second man — which Closer said was Hollande, whose face is obscured by a helmet — then arrives on the back of a scooter.
Other pictures show the first man arriving in the morning with what Closer said was a bag of croissants, then the second man in a helmet emerging from the building and jumping on the back of a scooter. Another photo shows a woman resembling Gayet leaving the building and walking down the street.
In years past, when the belief in privacy rights for French public officials was a bit stronger and when the French news media was a bit more chaste, the rumors about a love affair involving the president might have remained the unwritten gossip of Parisian journalists and the well connected.
Much the way it was for JFK, who would never survive today's politics (for the same reason he didn't survive yesterday's politics, but at least they wouldn't have had to blow his head off).
Amazing how privacy rights are a concern when it isn't any old slob being spied on like it is all of us.
The amorous lives of public officials were long considered off limits for French journalists, many of whom have themselves become involved with politicians. This was the case, for instance, with Hollande’s current “official companion,” Valérie Trierweiler, who began a relationship with Hollande while covering French politics for the magazine Paris Match.
Hollande has four children from a previous relationship with Ségolène Royal, a senior member of his Socialist Party and a 2007 presidential candidate. Royal and Hollande separated shortly after she lost the 2007 election to Nicolas Sarkozy.
That should be spelled $ocialist from now one because it's just a name. They still serve banks. Both the Greeks and French have found that out when they voted for "change."
But the expectation that journalists will protect the privacy of the powerful has eroded steadily, if by no means completely, over the past two decades.
Watch that while they steal the loot, public.
In 1994, Paris Match published photographs of President François Mitterrand with Mazarine Pingeot, his daughter from a long-running affair. Pingeot’s existence had been kept hidden from the public but was an open secret among French journalists.
More recently, the 2011 arrest on sexual assault charges of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then a prominent politician and likely presidential candidate, caused a broad debate among French news media and society at large. Journalists had long gossiped about Strauss-Kahn’s allegedly promiscuous and sometimes aggressive sexual behavior, including at least one allegation of rape.
At the time, many French journalists defended the choice not to report on Strauss-Kahn’s behavior, arguing that to do so would have been voyeuristic and not in the public interest.
I must confess that I followed the case for a while. Just another elite banking scum who thinks he is above the law.
And look at the self-appointed $hit-$hovelers of the pre$$ decide what is in the public interest or not.
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Whatever that is, it is not in the public intere$t:
"Companion of French president hospitalized" Associated Press, January 13, 2014
PARIS — The woman considered France’s first lady was hospitalized after a report the president is having an affair with an actress, her office said Sunday, as a poll was released showing the French shrugging off any liaison as none of their business.
The French don't care, and neither do I.
So how is the most-hated president in French history and his austerity programs working out while he wages war in Africa?
Valerie Trierweiler was hospitalized Friday — the day the magazine report and photo spread came out — for ‘‘rest and a few tests,’’ said her chief of staff, Patrice Biancone. He said she was expected to leave Monday.
As if the revelations were somehow traumatic? She's already been distancing herself from him because she knows.
Also see: French Fart
Maybe this play for sympathy will help those woeful poll numbers, although a woman farting in public is faux pas.
Francois Hollande, 59, has never married but has had longtime relationships with Trierweiler and before her with French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, with whom he has four children. Rumors have circulated for months that he might have another lover.
And that is how he started seeing her, right?
So she's either a naive fool or idiot to think this wouldn't happen to her.
French media face strict privacy laws, but in recent years have chipped away at the tradition of ignoring the private lives of public figures.
The magazine Closer published images Friday showing a bodyguard and a helmeted man it said was Hollande visiting Julie Gayet, 41, a French actress who appeared in a clip for his 2012 presidential campaign.
Hollande’s popularity is already at historic lows over his failure to improve the economy, but a poll released over the weekend indicated the latest developments left the majority of French untroubled….
I'm sure they are more troubled by French escalation of war in Africa and the shit economy that comes along with serving global banking interests, not who their latest front man scum is sleeping with.
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"Hollande admits to ‘painful’ time, insists on privacy; Refuses to talk about reports of affair with actress" by Sylvie Corbet and Elaine Ganley | Associated Press, January 15, 2014
I guess stereotypical French arrogance is true.
PARIS — President Francois Hollande of France conceded Tuesday that he is going through ‘‘painful moments’’ with his companion, who was hospitalized after a magazine reported that he is secretly having an affair with a movie actress.
But the Socialist Hollande, who has some of the lowest approval ratings of a French leader, sidestepped specifics about his personal life and tried to devote his annual presidential news conference to his plan for reviving France’s struggling economy.
That is in all of history, folks.
Hollande’s partner, journalist Valerie Trierweiler, has been hospitalized since Friday, when the tabloid-style magazine Closer published photos it said proved Hollande’s liaison with actress Julie Gayet around the corner from the presidential Elysee Palace.
Hollande said Trierweiler ‘‘is resting’’ but insisted at the packed news conference that it was not the place to discuss the issue.
He did not deny or confirm the Closer report, which has become a setback for Hollande, whose announcement Tuesday of economic measures meant to encourage hiring was nearly overshadowed by the scandal.
I would say it was based on this slop-$hit report in my propaganda pre$$.
The first reporter to speak asked Hollande who France’s first lady is.
The president brushed aside the question in a country where the private lives of leaders have long been considered private. But he suggested that his relationship with Trierweiler was in a crisis stage….
It's been that way for a while!
Hollande said he would respond to the question before his Feb. 11 state visit to Washington, a trip that would normally include Trierweiler.
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney hedged when asked if there were any changes to plans for the visit by Hollande and his partner….
Who gives a phoque? Why doesn't he just stay home instead?
After the news conference, Hollande spoke with journalists in a private Elysee office, appearing relaxed and saying he was satisfied with the news conference. He said he was not surprised about the questions about his private life, but refused further comment on it.
Oh, well, then we can all be happy now.
Trierweiler is the first person to hold the post of first lady — not a formal function in France — who was not married to the president.
But Gayet would not be Hollande’s first fling. He had four children with another leading Socialist politician, Segolene Royal, and left her for Trierweiler, whom he has lived with since 2007.
And now it is time to move on to a new bed.
France has a rich tradition of dalliances among leaders, be they kings or presidents.
Now misogyny and unfaithfulness are rich traditions.
But the concept of privacy, considered sacred, was chipped away under Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande’s swaggering, brash predecessor and political rival. Sarkozy divorced while in office, then married model and songstress Carla Bruni.
The French media have pounced on the report of Hollande’s infidelity to Trierweiler….
So has muh (sic) Globe.
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Looks like it is time for a divorce. Was it the fake boobs that turned him off?
Of course, everyone knows the real woman problem in France is those French ladies in veils, all 2200 of them. It's Muslim women in veils that are responsible for all the problems in the world, not lying, looting bankers or their mass-murdering war criminals slaves like Hollande here.
