Fanny Ardant's (almost) radio silence

Asking open-ended questions is surely a golden rule of broadcast journalism.

In fact it's pretty much a guaranteed way of getting anyone to open up and talk no matter what the situation might be.

Fanny Ardant (screenshot from "Nos retrouvailles")

Open-ended questions will (essentially) give the person - in the case which follows, the one being interviewed - the chance to answer with more than just a simple "yes" or "no".

Sadly in France, all too often, a radio or television journalist will pose a mammoth question which, you just know, is going to elicit a response that'll probably end up being shorter.

It's a style which seems to be the accepted norm rather than the exception.

Maybe it's journalists wanting to show just how much they understand the subject under discussion.

Or perhaps they have inflated egos and are all-too-engrossed in themselves and their "take" on the matter, to the detriment of the person they're supposed to be interviewing.

Of course, it's a generalisation. Some can simply pose a pertinent question and the wait for the answer.

There are some very good interviewers with years of experience and capable of teasing a response - even from the most recalcitrant guest.

One such example is Jean-Marc Morandini, who hosts (among other things) a daily one-hour show on Europe 1 radio and a similar programme on one of the country's TNT channels, Direct 8, in the evenings.

All right, they're not exactly mind-stretching or highbrow. Morandini specialises in celebrity gossip and the media, and has a blog (which he's constantly promoting) that's not for anyone wanting a scholarly approach to news.

But even with his years of experience, Morandini sometimes finds himself up against a tough nut to crack, as was the case on Wednesday morning during an interview with one of France's finest actresses, Fanny Ardant.



She had been invited on to the show to talk about her role in the made-for-television film "Nos retrouvailles" scheduled to be screened on France 2 television in the evening and for which she had received some glowing critics (even if the film itself was less lauded).

But as you can hear from the interview, Ardant was being less than co-operative - and a ropey telephone line probably didn't help much.

You can clearly hear Morandini struggling to keep the flow going, although somehow he made it with a laugh of relief to the end of two-and-a-half minutes which includes pauses that were not so much pregnant as they were laboured (ouch).

It's all in French of course.

It raises a smile, but equally the listener is as grateful as the presenter when it's wrapped up.

l'incroyable interview de Fanny Ardant sur Europe 1 Vidéo jeanmarcmorandini sélectionnée dans Replay TV

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis - to split or shoddy "reporting"

So after 14 years together and two children, French actress-singer Vanessa Paradis and US actor Johnny Depp are on the brink of splitting up.

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis (screenshot from Gothica940 YouTube video montage)

They're "living sad and separate lives" according to most "reports" and have been doing so for the past year.

Paradis hasn't been attending premiers of Depp's films (even when they're in the same city at the same time).

And goodness, the couple didn't attend last week's Golden Globes award together; Depp was there but apparently Paradis stayed at home with the kids.

The British and American media is "reporting" that it's as good as over and the French is following suit - but with a little more reserve.

It might be waiting for official confirmation but that doesn't stop it from "reporting" the rumours.

Why all those inverted commas?

Well you have to admit it, the term "reporting" has to be used loosely as there's very little demonstration of actual news gathering. You know, find a story, interview some people (preferably those directly involved) and then write or broadcast the material using attributions.

Nope instead "the highly respected publication" People Magazine - as that much revered bastion of quality journalism Britain's Daily Mail calls it - is used as the main source with "some insiders" or "informants" and of course unnamed "sources" providing insight into the couple's relationship and drawing conclusions which might - or might not - be true.

Accuracy, as it does so often, has flown out of the proverbial window to be substituted by rumour and speculation.

Paradis and Depp might well be on the verge of making some sort of announcement about splitting. They wouldn't be the first and they won't be the last.

They could also have been merely "co-habiting" for the past year, as has been suggested by plenty of celebrity journalists - or should that be "informed People watchers".

But come on, give us a break.

The story might sell and make great gossip, but how about doing some proper journalism before telling us all what is "apparently" or "supposedly" happening or about to happen.

Trash TV's Secret Story - update

You can tell summer has arrived here in France because the signs are all around us.

First up there are the obvious ones - such as the weather and the dress code. Of course the latter, especially in the nation's capital, can still turn into something of a catwalk as this year's chic hits the streets big time in what for many is the Mecca of the fashion world.

Then there are the music festivals, concerts, outdoor productions, and jumble sales held up and down the country and let’s not forget the smell of a BBQ wafting in from the neighbour’s garden.

Prime time television news reports begin focussing on the queues at airports and the number of passengers passing through the French capital's major railway stations, rather than hard news. And national newspapers go in for the inevitable silly season.

The inside lanes of the motorways are bumper-to-bumper full of Dutch cars, trailers and caravans, busting at the seams with provisions for a month.

In August of course, when (hopefully) summer will be in full swing a huge chunk of the country will all but close down for a month and Paris will put up shop almost completely as the French head south literally and metaphorically with “Aoutien” holidaymakers replacing “Juilletistes”.

But the real clue that the whole shebang is underway has to be the reappearance on the small screen of Secret Story.

It reared its less than attractive head on Friday evening on the country’s number one national channel, TF1, and is set to be in everyone's sitting rooms for the next 10 weeks.

In essence it's France's answer to Big Brother - only more downmarket. Impossible you might think, but sadly true.

Basically the idea is very simple. It starts with 15 people, strangers to each other - with the odd exception, as will become clearer later on - moving into a built-for-TV house, where they'll be under the watchful eye of the production team and the viewing public 24/7 (via the Internet of course) for two and a half months.

Each carries with them into the house a "secret" - and the idea is to keep it hidden from the others for as long as possible while trying to cajole out of fellow house mates exactly what they're trying to keep under wraps.

Off camera there is also the deep bass booming tones of The Voice (La Voix), dropping hints whenever he feels like it, setting playful if somewhat idiotic tasks with cash rewards should they be completed successfully without anyone else in the house realising.

Every week two candidates are nominated and television viewers get to vote in a ‘phone poll (at premium rates of course) on who should stay in. Original stuff huh?

Yes the country which so often likes to think that it has taken the cultural highroad, brought the world classics in the fields of literature, art and music, prides itself on its language and traditions, cuisine, fine wines and haute couture - now proves once again that it can mix it with the best and worst of what the world of reality TV has to offer.

The new series, which kicked off on Friday evening will have a hard act to follow.

Last summer, when TF1 first ran the programme, the eventual winner quickly had her secret revealed .She was a triplet – and after the other house members wheedled it out of her, in tramped her two sisters.

Thus the three of them provided viewers with hours of entertainment as they played cards, ate, played cards and slept, eventually being crowned the winners because…. well because they were pretty inoffensive and bland.

Up against them was the nudist, the escort boy, the son of a famous French tennis player (Henri Leconte) a transsexual and an obnoxious couple (their secret) who bickered and manipulated their way to the final, earning their Warhol moment of fame and then (thankfully) disappearing into oblivion.

This year's dollop of dubious “culture” kicked off with the contestants tastefully arriving at the house one by one in his and hers blue and pink limos. Each woman seemingly more buxom than the last, many of them sporting micro dresses of which even pop diva Mariah Carey would have been envious.

And with a few exceptions each man was more muscled, more coiffed and more drop-dead gorgeous than the last, preening and pouting as though they were models in Milan.

Separately they tottered, strutted, swaggered or tripped their way through the jeering and cheering masses into 10-weeks-worth (for the eventual winner) of fleeting public notoriety and a stab at the chance of picking up a €150,000 cheque at the end.

Some of the contestants have had their secrets revealed to the public already – such as the lesbian couple from Belgium, the black mother and white daughter or the 30-something hunk and teenage siren who have to pretend to be “a couple”. But none of the other housemates (apart from those “in” on their own coupled secrets) is any the wiser yet.

Nor do any of the contestants know exactly what secrets they have to find out, although once again viewers have been told that among the 15 there is an Anglican minister (male of female not revealed), an undertaker, a medium (who you would think might just have a head start on the others and know whether he or she would end up winning), a prince or princess and a Don Juan with apparently more than 750 “conquests” under his belt already.

So as the 15 pretenders to the title of French telly’s newest reality TV hero or heroine are busy settling in to their 24/7 life together transmitted live on the Net and daily on the small screen, we can probably expect some tasteless antics similar to last year’s offering – such as the rump steak shoved down the underpants of one male contestant.

There’ll also doubtless be the same sort of petty rivalries, squabbles and handbags-at-dawn stuff that characterised much of the first series.

But breathe a sigh of relief because at least it’s all being done in the name of entertainment. And as much as some might question why and find it “outrageous”, there’ll probably still be millions tuning in.

Let’s also not forget there’s always the “off” button on the TV set or alternative viewing on other channels.

As compulsive and trashy as Secret Story might be it'll still more than likely pull in the viewers and become its own story in itself as the nation tut-tuts and hisses in disapproval and indignation at the antics of the previous night's revelations.

And here's one of the secrets......



And one day later the first "secret" is revealed as the Belgian couple are outed.



Oh well. In the indomitable words of La Voix “C’est tout pour le moment.

Orange sees red and becomes a People

He’s back from his hols and raring to go. There again you would be hard pushed to know that he had ever been away- given the domestic media coverage over the past couple of weeks..

France’s sixth president of the Fifth Republic has returned from his highly hyped 10 days in the good old U.S. of A looking just as Orange as when he left. Ever conscious of the purse strings, he didn’t have to dig deep into his own pockets to cover the costs – a mere €23,000 yes that’s right TWENTY THREE THOUSAND EUROS – a week.

Nor did the French taxpayer have to cough up the lucre. He’s a canny (or whatever the Gaul equivalent might be) bloke is our Nic. He simply got the Enigmatic One – aka his wife - to organise everything. And she in turn she persuaded her good buddy - who as a big cheese at the fashion house Prada just happens to rolling in it - to pick up the tab.

Good to have friends in high places. Doubtless it will work both ways at some point but that’s something to be delved into at a later date.

So back home Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (to give HIM his full name this time around) got straight back to work and hauled in both the Justice Minister and the Interior Minister to plan a series of new measures to deal with repeat child sex offenders.

It was a swift and much-praised reaction to a scandal the previous weekend when a recently released paedophile had abducted and abused a five-year-old. It turned out the 61-year old man had barely been out of prison a month after serving 18 years of a 27-year sentence for similar offences. And just to make the whole sad story worse and have the tabloids* drooling, he had been prescribed Viagra by prison doctors.

To give him his due Sarkozy saw red and didn’t hang around in introducing tough reforms. HMV has spoken. Child sex offenders will have to complete their full sentence. No parole. And even then they may not be freed. Those still seen as a threat to society could be detained in a secure hospital for paedophiles and if allowed to leave at some point, they would be tagged or may even be chemically castrated! No bleeding-hearted liberalism being entertained here.

Such measures will doubtless be hugely popular – Sarkozy continues to ride high in the all the polls. But at the same time it signals a distinct switch in political thinking about how to deal with social problems.

Immigration is also high on Sarkozy’s list of clean-up jobs – and especially illegal immigrants or those here “sans papiers”.

Pressure groups have accused the government of stepping up the campaign, and using bullyboy methods to send illegal immigrants “back where they belong”.

The recent case of a Chechen-Russian couple, whose asylum claim had been rejected, illustrates what many opponents see as the authorities intolerance and mishandling of often very delicate situations.

During a police raid on their apartment, the couple’s 12-year-old son jumped out of the window in an attempt to escape. The injuries he sustained left him in a coma for almost a week and the whole family has now been allowed to stay in France while he goes through a long period of rehabilitation.

While pressure groups say unnecessary force was used to gain entry, the police union, in a somewhat twisted turn in the story, say several of their officers have been traumatised by what happened and are currently getting psychological support.

While the argument over the “fairness” of police working conditions rumbles on, the “problem” of how to deal with illegal immigrants is just as unlikely to be resolved here in France as it is in the rest of Europe. With one of his closest cronies as head honcho at the ministry, Sarkozy has already clearly indicated that it’s going to be a priority during his five-year tenure.

And as France reflects on whether it can stand the pace of the first 100 days, that much esteemed weekly magazine, and bastion of good taste and great journalism, Paris Match, has officially made PermatanMan a “People”.

The “People” – yes that’s right always in the plural, whether referring to several individuals or just one – here in France is the new way of saying “celebrity”. As you would expect they grace the pages of the country’s glossies and unwillingly or not, are the very stuff of gossip columns.

Anyway the latest issue of Paris Match carries pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy on holiday. You know - the sort of thing we all really want to see according to the same magazine, which not so long ago decided “Segolene Royal on the beach” was justifiably long-lens material.

Now French politicians have not traditionally been “A” listers or any other letter come to that. They have been newsworthy for sure – but rather for policies and the occasional fraud or tax scandal, but never really Posh ‘n Becks type celebs.

Those days are over it seems. Politicians can now also be counted among the “People” or those famous for being famous according to the editors at PM. At least that was their reasoning behind airbrushing the love handles out of the holiday snaps of said NS while he was in the States.

Hallelujah. In the words of the Beautiful South “The world is turning Disney and there’s nothing we can do.” Or maybe it is just Orange

*Tabloids – Poetic licence really as France being such a cultured country doesn’t have a gutter press as such – and certainly not on the same scale as Blighty.