Wikipédia "Non, mais allô quoi"

Recognise the catchphrase?

The chances are, even if you're not a fan of reality TV, you'll have heard those words in one form or another over recent weeks.

They formed the now infamous moment of "glorious" telly after being uttered by a certain Nabilla Benatillia during an episode of "Les Anges de la télé-réalité" on NRJ12.
Lost already?

Nabilla (screenshot from "Les Anges de la télé-réalité")

Here's the quickest of recaps.

"Les Anges de la télé-réalité" is a reality TV show (surprise, surprise) first launched back in 2011 to "celebrate" a decade of the genre in France.

Whoopee!

It groups together "stars" (a lot of inverted commas going on here) of previous TV reality shows and allows them to pursue their dreams Stateside.

There have been four seasons so far and in the most recent Benatillia, who has found "fame" with just the use of her first name, uttered a phrase that quickly became something of a cult.

Nabilla, who first hit French TV screens in TF1's "L'amour est aveugle" (don't ask, but if you really want to find out more about that programme, click here, it's truly "fascinating") wanted to further her career as a "model".

And while taking giant steps "to become this country's answer to Kim Kardashian" (don't worry if you're not following any of this or aren't familiar with the names. A quick Internet search will reveal all you need to know) Nabilla spoke the words which were soon to create a buzz in France.

Talking about fellow contestants who had apparently forgotten to bring their shampoo with them (!!!), Nabilla said to camera, "Euh, allô! non, mais allô, quoi. T'es une fille et t'as pas de shampooing? Allô. Allô! Je ne sais pas, vous me recevez? T'es une fille et t'as pas de shampooing? C'est comme si je dis: t'es une fille et t'as pas de cheveux!"



Yes.

Well.

Er.

If you've been following the links in the piece so far, you'll have noticed that most of them are to pieces provided by those fine folk at Wikipedia - the English version that is.

And with good reason.

Because the French equivalent has decided Nabilla isn't newsworthy enough and has dropped her page.

Why?

After all, this is the very same Nabilla who put in such a stunning performance on "Le Grand Journal" on Canal + in mid-April.

Nabilla (screenshot "Le Grand Journal" Canal + April 11, 2013)

Her "catchphrase" was repeated and parodied by media "luminaries" such as journalist Audrey Pulvar and presenter Alessandra Sublet.

Heck even IKEA and Carrefour jumped on the bandwagon to use it in commercials.

But all that is apparently not enough for Wikipédia (French spelling) France as its president, Rémi Mathis, explained to (the culture section of) Le Figaro.

Mathis told the newspaper that to determine whether a person's entry was worth maintaining on Wikipédia, a vote was put to the site's most regular contributors and the outcome had been a 66:44 vote in favour of pulling Nabilla's page.

"It avoids the situation whereby Wikipédia simply seems to be 'peddling the buzz of the week'," he explained.

"Like all rules of Wikipédia, the eligibility criteria have been established by the community," he continued.

"Deleting a page is nothing extraordinary and happens several times a day and it can also transpire that an entry that has been removed, returns at a later date once the person has achieved a certain level of notoriety."

So there's hope yet for Nabilla and her legion of fans...because given a little more exposure (she'll be appearing in the fifth season of "Les Anges de la télé-réalité") and a few more choice expressions under her belt, she could make a return to Wikipédia France.

Just as a certain young Canadian singer did back in 2009, when his page was reinstated after being removed for a couple of months.

Ah. The price of fame!

An impossible match? Female broadcast journalists and politicians, Audrey Pulvar

Being the wife or partner of a leading (male) politician in France is a minefield at the best of times.

But when the woman in question also happens to be a journalist working for either TV or radio, and she specialises is politics...well, it seems she's virtually guaranteed a hard time.

Audrey Pulvar has become the latest victim of the "oh you're the partner of a high-ranking politician so you can't possibly do your job properly" club.

Audrey Pulvar (screenshot "On n'est pas couché")

Pulvar is the partner of the newly-appointed industrial renewal minister Arnaud Montebourg and has had a permanent slot on the Saturday night talk show "On n'est pas couché" on France 2.

It's essentially an entertainment  programme in which Pulvar is one of two panellists  - along with Le Figaro journalist Natacha Polony - giving invited guests - often politicians, but not always - a grilling.

Pulvar and Polony act as a sort of Left-Right double team.

But there's a problem as far as the president of France Télévisions, Rémy Pflimlin, is concerned - certainly when it comes to Pulvar.

It's one that involves a potential conflict of interest and ethics: Pflimlin would prefer Pulvar to refrain from interviewing politicians, in effect rendering her role useless.

So Pulvar is leaving the show and not without a certain irony and bitterness as expressed in a Tweet.

"Thank you to everyone," she wrote. "I've no doubt now that the profession of journalism has been rehabilitated and the media has once again become objective."

In a real sense Pulvar surely has every right to carry a grudge because she seems to be paying the price for Montebourg's political career.

She has already had to give up her weekday morning programme on France Inter radio.

And last year, when Montebourg declared himself a candidate in the Socialist party primary, the all-news channel I>Télé cancelled Pulvar's political show.

Of course down the years, Pulvar is far from being the only female broadcast journalist in France forced to put her career on hold because of a perceived conflict of interest.

Back in 1997 Anne Sinclair stepped down from presenting the weekly news and political magazine "7 sur 7" on TF1 when her husband, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (as if you needed telling that) became finance minister.

In 2007 it was the turn of France 2's weekend anchor Béatrice Schönberg to call it a day. The presidential elections hadn't yet taken place but her husband, Jean-Louis Borloo, was one of the names being touted as a possible future prime minister under a Nicolas Sarkozy-presidency.

In fact the year wasn't a good one for female broadcast journalists because another one, Marie Drucker, was put on extended leave from her job as an anchor on France 3.

The reason? Well at the time she was the partner of François Baroin, the man who was appointed interior minister after Sarkozy launched his presidential campaign and was required to resign.

Drucker and Baroin didn't last and she was re-instated and eventually moved over to France 2.

Christine Ockrent was perhaps the "exception that proved the rule" in retaining her job at France 3 and being allowed to present a political magazine even when her other half, Bernard Kouchner accepted the post of foreign minister.

But often women journalists working for TV and radio and who are married to, or living with, prominent politicians seem to have their professional objectivity questioned.

That doesn't necessarily seem to be the case over in print journalism - at least not as long as they steer clear of politics.

François Hollande's partner, Valérie Trierweiler has managed to keep her post at Paris Match where she's a political journalist, although her first piece since becoming France's first lady narrowly avoids controversy by focussing on a woman - Eleanor Roosevelt - with whom any possible resemblance is "purely coincidental" according to L'Express.

A portent of things to come perhaps from Trierweiler.

And over at the financial daily Les Échos, Valérie de Senneville, the wife of the newly-appointed employment minister Michel Sapin, is hoping to be able to hold on to her job.