François Hollande stands firm on same-sex marriage

Well good for the French president François Hollande.

He has repeated that there won't be a referendum on proposals to allow couples of the same-sex to marry or to adopt.

"It's a promise I made to the French and it has to be honoured (some throat clearing might be necessary in believing the next bit) just as the other promises I made, have to be," he said in his New Year wishes to parliament this week.

All right so the protests might not be over yet, but with the end of January approaching and the proposals due to go before parliament, it's maybe Hollande showing that he actually has the cajones to follow through on a pledge.

Perhaps he's not so "Flanby" after all and is less lightweight with no hard core set of principles than his critics might claim.

From Wikipedia

After all, isn't there a sense of social justice in allowing those who wish to marry someone of the same sex, to do so?

Those 800,000 who marched in Paris recently (a questionable figure anyway as official statistics provided by the police put the number at around 350,000, even if we all know those can also be "massaged") will now just have to get used to the idea that the law is likely to pass.

As will those who claim to be oh-so-proud of their discriminatory and reactionary views as to what constitutes a "marriage", because - well it's going to happen, just as it has in Argentina, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa or Spain (to name but a few).

And that, dear reader, is called progress.

Welcome to the 21st century...France.

David Beckham for PSG?

It's a done deal as far as the national daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien and the sports daily L'Equipe are concerned.

David Beckham (from Wikipedia)

British footballer David Beckham is set to sign for one of France's top sides, Paris Saint-Germain.

The cost to lure the 36-year-old to the French capital? €800,000 a month according to Le Parisien which will, not surprisingly, make him the country's best-paid player.

Since it bought a controlling interest in PSG earlier this year, the Qatar Investment Authority has been pouring money into the club, appointing former Brazilian international Leonardo as director of football and recruiting players including Argentine Javier Pastore for a reported €39.8 million.

Yes the club has money - lots of it. And the owners seem determined to make it a European footballing powerhouse - in least in terms of spending.

Beckham of course would appear to be the perfect marketing match; he has global recognition and even though he might be "getting on a bit" in terms of the lifespan of a Beautiful Game player, the wisdom and technique to share with the rest of the team.

And there's no forgetting that he comes as part of a package in the form of the glamourous jet-set couple lifestyle he and his wife Victoria lead.

That should keep media interest just as high as it already has been over the past couple of months with reports that they have been consulting estate agents for a suitable pad and private schools for their children.

What price sport - when you can pay for it?

Sex on legs - "Tanguera" is back in Paris

Once again Parisian audiences are being treated to the exhaustingly energetic but sublimely sensual "Tanguera" playing at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

It's a musical but told in dance - the Tango of course.

Tanguera (screenshot from trailer)

And what makes it especially compelling is how it manages to tell the history of its own roots by going back to its beginnings (of course) and at the same time combining it with a love story typical for any era, but that was very much part of the milieu in which the Tango was born.

Set in the poor quarter of Boca in Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century, Tanguera tracks the tale of Giselle, a young woman from France, who has recently arrived as part of the wave of immigration from Europe to South America at the time.

She cannot find legitimate work and gets drawn into prostitution under the "comforting arm" of Gaudencio, a gangster, pimp and drug trafficker.

From prostitution she moves into the seedy world of cabaret, controlled by Gaudencio, and discovers the Tango. It becomes her drug almost, and she in return becomes a star of the scene, quickly attracting the attention of the virtuous Lorenzo, a docker.

He of course at the end finally takes his courage in his hands and challenges Gaudencio to a fight, where the two men slug it out in mortal combat - all for the love of a woman.

Directed by Omar Pacheco, the choreography of Mora Godoy is phenomenal.

The dancers who keep the action flowing are seductive and sensual without being vulgar. There's a vibrancy, energy and speed that leaves the audience feeling just as exhausted as surely the dancers must be by the end.

Eat your heart out "Danse avec les stars".

"Tanguera" is just under two hours of electrifying moves and wonderful music combined with a choreography that'll leave even the most heavy-footed member of the public panting for more and almost ready to throw all caution to the wind and run on to the stage to be part of the performance.

All right, perhaps not. After all it would be hard (and probably painful) to even attempt to replicate what the ensemble sf capable of.

"Tanguera" draws you in, keeps you transfixed and, simply put, it's sex on legs. Not to be missed if you're planning a visit to the French capital.

So if you didn't catch "Tanguera" when it was last performed back in Paris in 2008, then now's your chance.

It runs at the Théâtre du Châtelet from October 15 - November 2 and there are still seat available!

The Dakar rally, the former beauty queen and French TV

What happens when two French institutions "meet"?

Easy. You get one - a former Miss France - commentating on another - the Paris-Dakar.

And all hell has been let loose among sports journalists miffed, thinking that they've been passed over for the job.

Screenshot from official promo video, Dakar 2011

That annual real life version of the television cartoon Wacky Races - aka The Dakar (formerly Paris-Dakar) - hasn't yet got underway, but already it's providing plenty of what the French seem to love so much, "polemic".

At the heart of the furore is a former beauty queen, Élodie Gossuin, Miss France 2001 and Miss Europe in the same year.

No the 30-year-old is not going to don a helmet rather than a coronet.

Instead the powers that be at France Television have decided that she should join the commentary team during the Rally which begins on January 1; an appointment that certainly hasn't been to everyone's liking.

So much so that it quickly became apparent that all was not well among sports journalists at France Television and initial reports after the announcement was made suggested that five of them belonging to la société des journalistes du service des sports, or the sports desk if you will, along with their president, Nicolas Vinoy, and spokesman Gérard Holtz, had resigned in protest.

"The position of consultant during the Paris-Dakar was a coveted one," it was reported.

It wasn't apparently Gossuin per se to whom they objected but the way her appointment had been made.

As it turned out, only Vinoy had handed in his notice and that was "nothing to do with the arrival of Gossuin," according to Daniel Bilalian, the director of sports at France Television, suggesting that there were other problems among the team that had been "brought to a head" by the appointment.

"Élodie Gossuin has already participated in Andros Trophy (the French national ice racing championships) and she's familiar with motorsports," he said.

"She's welcome to the team covering the Dakar, and I wanted her to be a part of it."

With Gossuin the subject of both the sports and celebrity pages of newspapers, it wasn't long of course before journalists turned their attention to how she felt about the "polemic" (yes there's that word again).

"It has been very unpleasant and I wish it had happened differently," she told Europe 1 national radio.

"These are internal problems that don't concern me," she added.

"I have no pretensions of wanting to call myself a journalist, I'm just going to be a consultant."

And that means, according to Holtz, who is also one of the race commentators, "adding colour" to the event by "spending time with doctors and cooks" rather than reporting directly on the rally itself; for which even she admits she isn't qualified.

This year's Dakar begins on January 1 in Buenos Aires, Argentina and if it is nearly half as lively as the pre-rally build-up has been so far, it should be more than entertaining.