More incomplete faction: Valérie Trierweiler and the weekend TF1 stand-in anchor job

France's first "journalist", Valérie Trierweiler, has refused to respond to uncorroborated speculation that she has been passed over for a job as a news anchor at TF1.

Instead there are equally baseless suggestions that she withdrew her name at the last minute, giving up a golden chance of carving out a new professional role in life.

Yes, the anagramatical enigmatic Trierweiler or "Eerier Twirl" had apparently been rumoured to be on the shortlist for the part of "joker" or stand-in for TF1's weekend news while the regular anchor, Claire Chazal, was away on her hols over the summer.

But last week the channel announced that the job had been given to Anne-Claire Coudray.
And there are conflicting reports as to whether Trierweiler pulled out at the last moment or was in fact rejected in favour of a younger woman.

Anne-Claire Coudray (screenshot LCI)

Speaking on assurance of anonymity, a member of the news team said that Coudray had got the job over Trierweiler because of a marginally more impressive level of experience in the world of broadcast media.

"She (Trierweiler) is clearly an outstanding reporter with a penwomanship that is virtually unsurpassed by any other active press journalist, and is widely recognised as being at the forefront of her profession," said the source.

"But in the end, TV executives plumped for the younger in-house Coudray probably because she was a familiar face with viewers, having joined TF1 and its sister channel LCI in 2004."

A close friend, who has absolutely no inside knowledge or personal contact with Trierweiler, offered up a rather different explanation of events though, implying that it had been her personal decision to stand aside, thereby magnanimously handing the job to 35-year-old Coudray on the proverbial plate.

"Valérie wanted to get away from the inaccurate and unfair image of her as a somewhat bitter and twisted woman as portrayed by some cruel critics over the past few weeks," the friend said, referring to the low profile Trierweiler seems to have been keeping ever since the so-called anti-Seggers Twittergate affair.

"And she also realised taking a job at a channel whose major shareholder is a company owned by one of (former president) Nicolas Sarkozy's best buddies (Martin Bouygues) wouldn't exactly be helpful to François Hollande (her partner and the current French president) or sit well with the public in general," the pseudo friend continued.

"That's just the kind of woman she is. Always placing the interests of others before her own."

Instead, in an effort to remain the independent working woman she has maintained she wishes to be, Trierweiler is expected to continue thrilling readers of the award-winning weekly international news magazine Paris Match with her entertaining and deeply researched culture pieces.

So political intrigue at Sarkozy TV TF1 and/or Trierweiler genuinely trying to curry favour with Hollande and diminish any damage done after her "nuclear Tweet".

You be the judge.

Perhaps to help you, time for a song.

Cue the late Yvonne Fair's 1976 hit, "It should have been me".

Any excuse for a blast from the past hey.

Seasonal cock-ups from French TV news

It's the time of year when TV executives seem to have been more than a little unimaginative about how to fill programming schedules.

At least here in France it seems to be turkey-stuffed to bursting point with shows featuring the very best and worst of the year's bloopers, "humorous" outtakes, video gags et cetera - you get the picture surely.

All terribly original of course, and cheap to put together.

Sometimes though live telly provides its own unintentional moments of mirth and merriment - even the more serious side of news reporting.

And such has been the case recently with both of the country's major national channels treating viewers to a split second "did that I really see that?" double take during their prime time news broadcasts.

Oh yes a word on those perhaps as both privately-owned TF1 and public-run France 2 broadcast their two daily news programmes at the same times every day; one o'clock in the afternoon and eight o'clock in the evening.

It's practical really as the running order often differs and if you've only caught the tail end of one particular report, you can simply flick the remote to catch it hopefully on the other channel.

Then there's the editorial line of course. TF1 for example, is often accused of being more pro-government (or perhaps that should read more sympathetic to the president Nicolas Sarkozy) as its major shareholder is the French industrial group Bouygues, whose chairman of the board and CEO is Martin Bouygues.

He's a long-time friend of the French president, was a witness at his second marriage (to Cécilia) and is Godfather to Sarkozy's youngest son Louis. Draw your own conclusions

France 2 is supposedly more objective, but Sarkozy changed the law to allow himself to choose the CEO of the media group to which France 2 belongs, France Télévisions, and in August this year appointed Rémy Pflimlin to take over the job from Patrick de Carolis.

He (Sarkozy) obviously had his reasons.

Anyway back to those bloopers.

First up was TF1, running one of many reports on queues and delays at airports after snow brought yet another dollop of pre-Christmas blues to many.

During one presumable hastily cut segment for the December 18 weekend edition a couple were interviewed as they waited along with their children for their niece to arrive from the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

As the husband explained that her 'plane was due to land one-and-a-half hours late, a woman in the background can clearly be seen effortlessly pulling her red suitcase behind her.

The woman with the red suitcase (screenshot from TF1 news)

Except she's walking backwards!

Oops.

Arrêt sur images - La femme qui marche à l'envers sur TF1 Vidéo leblogtvnews sélectionnée dans TV/Séries

Not to be outdone it seems, France 2 decided to do a bit of its own travelling - in terms of time - at the beginning of its broadcast on Tuesday evening (December 28) this week.

It opened with the graphics telling viewers that what they were watching was not the daily edition of the programme but the weekend one.

Gremlins in the works of course.

Or maybe someone had imbibed a little too much holiday spirit.

Happy New Year - and thanks French TV news.