San Remo sans Carla

It's the news that's rocking (forgive the weak musical pun) Italy at the moment.

France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has pulled out of the country's San Remo music festival due to take place in a couple of weeks time.

And the order - for that's what it is if sectors of both the Italian and French media are to be believed - is a presidential one, courtesy of her husband the head of state of this country, Nicolas (Sarkozy for those who might have been on another planet for the past couple of years).

The Elysée palace (the French president's official residence and office) and ergo Bruni-Sarkozy were reportedly upset over the lyrics of a song to be performed by another artist and previous winner of the festival in 2007, Simone Cristicchi.

Her "Meno male," pokes fun at France's first couple by suggesting that the former model is a beguiling and "glamourous distraction" from any political problems her husband might be facing.

The announcement that Bruni-Sarkozy would be a no-show at Italy's best known singing jamboree came at the weekend and was made by the TV presenter Massimo Giletti on Italy's main public television channel, Rai Uno.

He divulged to viewers that he had been told by "friends" of France's first lady that she wouldn't be appearing because "the Elysée palace didn't want her exposed to public ridicule by being on the same stage" (although obviously not at the same time) "as Simone Cristicci, who had "mocked the French president in her song."

What's more he later told journalists that he had seen an email from Bruni-Sarkozy's staff that backed up his claim.

The formal explanation, offered up in the pages of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, is of course quite different in that "obligations", both official as France's first lady and personal commitments, always made her presence unlikely.

But there are few around, so it would seem, who believe that to be the real reason for the late cancellation.

Bruni-Sarkozy was due to have sung a duet with Italian singer Gino Paoli during the festival. Instead he'll be singing alone and as some wits in France have enjoyed saying on more than one occasion (and this only really works in French) "San Remo will be 'sans' Carla this year."

The San Remo music festival has been a national treasure in Italy for decades and is seen by many as the inspiration for that other European musical shindig, the Eurovision Song Contest.