Rachida Dati's post election cannabis fashion faux pas

So the first round in the presidential elections is over with French voters unsurprisingly choosing the Socialist Party's François Hollande to go head-to-head with the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6

The media is now in post first round overdrive with analysis and interpretation of Sunday's results and speculation over the outcome in a fortnight's time.

As such, one of the invited guests on Monday morning's edition of La Matinale on Canal + was none other than Rachida Dati.

Rachida Dati (screenshot from Canal + La Matinale)

You remember her - the woman brought in to Sarkozy's government as justice minister at a time when diversity - both ethnic and gender - was his buzzword, and then when the honeymoon was long over, dispatched to the country's version of sending someone to Coventry (apologies to that UK city, but it is an expression) and made to stand in the European elections.

Having "served her time" without creating too much of a media stir in France, Dati was brought back into the fold as Sarkozy's official campaigning got underway.

And in spite of herself perhaps she has been something of a non-contraversial star in so far as she didn't draw too much attention to herself for off-the-cuff and misplaced remarks.

Well, let's face it, Sarkozy had Nadine Morano for that.

But the day after the night before - and things look to have gone a little wrong for Dati - at least in the vestimentary department.

On Monday she appeared on La Matinale, the breakfast show on Canal +, to put the inevitable positive spin on Sunday's results.

And as she was talking, answering questions put to her by journalist Caroline Roux, the camera kept showing her from the back.

Why?

Well emblazoned on the back of her top was a pattern which looked for all the world to be that of a giant cannabis plant leaf.

(screenshot from Canal + La Matinale)

La Matinale's presenter, Maïtena Biraben, couldn't resist asking Dati about it at the end of the interview and the least that can be said is that the former justice minister floundered.

"There have been several messages on our Facebook page wondering whether your top is smoking," said Biraben to a non-plussed Dati.

"So what is the design on the back of your top - Cannabis?"

Looking rather uncomfortable and probably realising how this could play out later in the day, Dati denied that it was a cannabis plant leaf.

"Hemp?" suggested Biraben with a smile.

"No, not that either," replied Dati. "It's something else."

"Eucalyptus," said Biraben in a pretend Euruka! moment.

"Exactly," affirmed Dati, followed by some insincere laughter.

"But you can smoke eucalyptus too," chirped Biraben

"Yes...er...no, perhaps but eucalyptus makes you calmer," was Dati's final response...er - this obviously wasn't going the way she had planned.

La Matinale du 23/04 - Partie 1

Neither Biraben nor the viewers were prepared to leave it there though and later in the programme the production team provided a picture of a cannabis plant leaf side by side to one of the pattern on the back of Dati's top.

Rachida Dati (screenshot from Canal + La Matinale)

Draw your own conclusions but as one viewer wrote, "If it's not cannabis, what have I been smoking for the past 20 years?"

Nadine Morano's Renaud-Renault howler - the song

You kind of knew it was going to happen.

It's barely a week since Nadine Morano, the minister in charge of apprenticeships and professional training, made a complete fool of herself during an interview on an early morning television programme.

Nadine Morano and Caroline Roux (screenshot La Matinale Canal +)

Her classic confusion of "Renaud", a French singer-songwriter with a distinctive "broken voice", with "Renault", the car manufacturer at the centre of the non-existent industrial espionage story, became an instant Internet hit and the object of plenty of ridicule.

Now though, an Internaut has come to her rescue - sort of.

Jérôme Niel aka La Ferme Jérôme (screenshot from video)

Jérôme Niel has written a song whose title uses the exact words in the question that so confused Morano, "Tous coupables sauf Carlos Ghosn" and performing it as - who else - but Renaud.

Just to refresh your memory, Morano was asked what she thought of the case of Renault in which everyone seemed to be guilty except its CEO Carlos Ghosn.

"J'aime, j'aime pas 'Tous coupables sauf Carlos Ghosn'," was what Morano was asked on an edition last week of La Matinale on Canal +.

And those words, as far as Niel were concerned, were at the nub of the minister's befuddlement.

"I watched the mistake Nadine Morano made and if you listen to the way the journalist (Caroline Roux) poses the question you can hear that it sounds like the title of a song 'Tous coupable sauf Carlos Ghosn'," he said.

"I thought why not simply use that as a starting point and I put it online and it has aroused a great deal of interest both on the Net and among the media."

Looking - sort of - and sounding - more so - like Renaud, Niel lets Morano of the hook in a manner of speaking, because her blunder is no longer as silly as it seemed!

Well that's if you can get over the fact of a politician being so ill-informed on what was the major domestic news story of the day.



Of course it's all a spoof and not the first time the web humorist has composed and performed such a parody.

There's more, much more on his blog La Ferme Jérôme and his Facebook page

No reaction from Morano herself yet - which is probably the best approach.

Nadine Morano's Renaud-Renault howler

Oh how we all love it when politicians make a complete ass of themselves.

It somehow makes them appear normal, vulnerable and heck - even renders them likeable.

Such was the case of Nadine Morano, the minister in charge of apprenticeships and professional training, when she appeared on Tuesday morning's edition of La Matinale on Canal +.

The penny drops for Nadine Morano (left) while Caroline Roux (right) can't quite believe her ears (screenshot from La Matinale on Canal +)

She was invited on to the programme to be interviewed by its political correspondent, Caroline Roux, in a segment that lasts around seven minutes.

And it was at the end of being asked how the governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) was going to be able to put its house in order and avoid splitting that Morano made what was, even by her own admission, something of a howler.

Before reading any further you'll need to know a couple of things as background.

First of all there's Renault - as in the French car manufacturer which has been in the news over the past couple of months over the non-existent industrial espionage story.

It has all been rather a mess and an embarrassment, seeing three employees wrongly accused and this week forcing the resignation of some of its top managers.

Those resignations were one of the top domestic stories of the day. Remember that.

One person who has survived though is it's CEO - Carlos Ghosn. Remember that too.

Then there's Renaud - a singer-songwriter with a distinctive "broken voice" and some of whose songs have become popular classic in France. Here's one of his most famous ones, "Mistral gagnant"

Renault - Renaud: different spelling, same pronunciation.

For anyone one "not in the know" or who hadn't been reading the newspapers, turned on the radio or watched the telly it might be easy to confuse the two when asked a current affairs question.

But for a politician?

Here's what happened.

Roux had finished interviewing Morano and turned to the traditional round of quick-fire questions "J'aime, j'aime pas" (I like, I don't like) - a moment when she asks a guest their reaction to a major news story along the lines of "Do you like or don't you like....the role of France in the downfall of Laurent Gbagbo?" for example.

Actually that was one of the questions that proceeded Morano's "mistake".

"I like or I don't like - Renault - everyone is guilty except Carlos Ghosn?" asked Roux.

There was a moment's hesitation (presumably to collect her "thought" before Morano replied, "I like some of Renaud's songs," followed by a pause and accompanied by a growing look of incredulity from Roux.

"Not all of them," Morano continued.

"But I haven't heard that one. So I can't say whether or not I like it."

Roux, ever the professional and still not quite convinced that she has really heard what was just said then kindly but politely reminds Morano that "Everyone is guilty except Carlos Ghosn" isn't a song by Renaud.

"What is it?" asks Morano

"It's Renault which is settling scores in the case of industrial espionage," responds Roux.

Morano realises her "big mistake" as she describes it, and finally - after making excuses for her gaffe - answers the proper question.

But who cares? She had already provided the programme, viewers and Internauts of course, with more than enough merriment and proof that, once again, government ministers really have their fingers on the pulse of what's happening.

Ahem!


nadine morano et renaud francais 380268 mov hd par kiSScOOl1988