With her foot firmly in her mouth

She will do her best, promises France’s new first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in the headline of her exclusive interview with the weekly news magazine L’Express. But unfortunately she has got off to a somewhat less than flying start, which hardly augurs well for the future.

Bruni-Sarkozy told the magazine that one of its competitors, the centre-left weekly Nouvel Observateur was nothing more than a gossip mag after its Internet site published, what it alleged was, a text message sent from her new hubby, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to his former wife, Cecilia, just days before he got hitched to Carla.

In the message, Sarkozy apparently said that he would “drop everything if she returned”.

Last week’s story might have been that Sarkozy is suing, but this week’s is surely his new wife’s outstanding talent to show the tact required in her newly-elevated role from model-turned singer-turned president’s wife,

Bruni-Sarkozy went straight for the undiplomatic jugular by asking rhetorically what would have happened with the denunciation of Jews if a similar kind of site had existed during the war. A tender little slur on Nouvel Observateur for which she later apologised.

The magazine in turn offered its own apology for publishing the message, but still maintained the president was to blame for bringing his private life into the open so much himself.

So apologies all round, but a hefty majority of the French would seem to agree that Sarkozy is to blame for the whole sorry episode. According to the most recent opinion poll in the national daily, Le Figaro, a mighty 82 per cent of those questioned deemed the president’s behaviour and private life to be inappropriate to his role as head of state.

Be that as it may, he and his new wife are big sellers, as proven by the decision of L’Express to run an eight-page special on the thoughts and views of Bruni-Sarkozy, complete with a misty-lensed front cover shot and several “I’ve spent years posing for the cameras so I’m a dab hand at this” pictures to accompany the exclusive.

And what gripping stuff, what marvellous revelations we’re treated to in the piece. It’s essentially “Carla according to Carla”, worthy of any serious news magazine and incisive to the nth degree.

We learn for example that it was love at first sight when the couple clapped eyes on each other barely three months ago.

Apparently the former model and regular of the gossip columns would also have us believe that she was more than surprised by the media attention her whirlwind romance and marriage received – in fact she was submerged. Years on the catwalk had apparently familiarised Bruni-Sarkozy to media attention but not to the extent that she has experienced since first stepping out with the president.

Poor Carla, we learn, might find the reaction and the tone of the coverage overwhelming, but she has never been tempted to take flight, a barbed reference maybe to the former Mrs S, and rich from someone who has only been married for a couple of weeks. Here speaks an old hand indeed.

The main thing, Carla insists, is that she is in love, and no amount of pressure or scrutiny can change that. Right. Now is not the time probably to list all of her numerous high-profile past liaisons.

This one’s for real because she’s Italian (her words) and therefore doesn’t believe in divorce. Yikes it’s a marriage to last a lifetime -– a word of warning to her other half perhaps who seems to make it a pretty regular habit of exchanging vows.

She’s first lady until the end of her husband’s mandate (does she already worry that he’ll not be re-elected?) and wife ‘til death us do part’.

So what exactly is she going to do in her new job? Well, “her best” she asserts, but basically has nothing planned, which will be reassuring to the rest of the country, who will now know that she hasn’t got a clue what she is going to do – or so she says.

Of course she maintains how much she respects her immediate first lady predecessors (apart from Cecilia that is, who was hardly around long enough to be counted) such as Bernadette Chirac and Danielle Mitterrand. Both were long and silent sufferers of their respective husbands’ philandering it should be noted.

Bruni-Sarkozy aspires to maintain the dignity of the role, while keeping her own personality. Right.

Supposedly that also includes keeping up with her music – there’s a third album unfortunately due for release shortly. And for those who cannot get enough of her, there’s also the regularly featured commercial in which she appears for an Italian car maker currently doing the rounds of the television stations – complete with her dulcet tones.

With the first state visit not due until the end of March, France’s new premiere dame has a chance to try on a few designer frocks, pamper her already finely chiselled features and perhaps practise her curtsey before she heads off to the other side of the Channel.

Yes she’ll be draped from her husband’s arm (or maybe it’ll be vice-versa) during an official trip to Britain.

Better still maybe she would be well-advised to polish up the suit of armour and tape up her jaw to avoid any faux pas in front of the British paparazzi who, let’s be frank, make their French colleagues look like pussy cats.