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Bruni's not just a pretty face

By Kelly Jane Torrance
February 1, 2008

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (second right) and his model-turned-singer girlfriend Carla Bruni visit the Great Pyramids of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, along with Mr. Sarkozy's son Jean (left) and his unidentified friend.

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It's not often that the love life of a European — at least, one who's not royalty — makes headlines on this side of the pond. Then again, it's not often that a head of state finds himself single and in the tricky position of having to conduct every one of his dates in the public eye.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced through his office last October that he and his second wife, Cecilia, had divorced. She left him to return to the lover she had already abandoned the politician for once before. He bounced back from this romantic setback rather quickly: Just two months later, he made his public debut with a new love at Disneyland Paris.

Since December, newspapers around the globe have been reporting on the every move of the new couple, as they visited the pyramids in Egypt and contemplated a state trip to India. What seems to have captured public attention is not merely the fact that the 53-year-old head of one of Europe's most powerful nations is dating again. It's that Carla Bruni, the Italian-born, French-raised woman whom Mr. Sarkozy says he'll marry, is a beautiful 39-year-old former model.

Most men would be high-fiving one of their peers who managed to snag a catwalker, but Mr. Sarkozy has gotten almost nothing but grief since he embarked on the affair. Reacting to pictures of a smiling Mr. Sarkozy looking adoringly at his new girlfriend, most critics believe that the head of France has lost his head over a pretty ex-model. The general feeling has been one of resentment, not admiration.

Writing in the Washington Post, a snarky Robin Givhan summed up the sentiment: "Models already get the star athletes. The bookish debate-team captain should get the prime minister."

Notice how Miss Bruni is invariably described as an ex-model. Few columnists mention on first reference that she has a new career of her own now, as a singer-songwriter. It's her looks that matter, and in this context they work to her detriment.

Catholics like to claim that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable bigotry in the Western world, but the case of Miss Bruni — and others — suggests something else: Bigotry against beautiful women is one of the oldest, and longest-lasting, forms of prejudice.

Miss Givhan wrote prissily in the Post, "Bruni posed and pouted for fancy European houses and, in the late 1990s, she cashed out and embarked on what has been described as a singing career. Alicia Keys, she is not."

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