All things French

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AFP – French politician Segolene Royal will go to court to seek damages after news weekly Paris Match published pictures of her walking hand in hand with a man in a Spanish street, she said Thursday.

This week’s cover story shows Royal, the defeated Socialist candidate in France’s 2007 presidential election, enjoying a private moment in Marbella with a man described as a little-known 58-year-old board games publisher.

They are stolen photos, once again.

France has strict privacy laws which theoretically ban the press from publishing details of personalities’ private lives without their permission, although magazines often break the rules and pay the resulting fines.

It’s not the first time that Match has stolen pictures. It might nice if I could get a little peace and quiet, Royal, 55, told reporters at a news conference to launch a solar energy strategy for her region Poitou-Charentes. Since they’re starting again, I think I’ll make sure that the law is enforced, she warned. I’ve warned them before but never made a complaint.

We won’t let this pass, he warned, accusing unnamed forces of conspiring to undermine his client’s political work by turning her public image into that of a celebrity rather than that of a serious campaigner.

Royal’s friend and lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard, told Europe 1 radio that he would make a complaint against Paris Match for having invaded her privacy.

The magazine denounced the complaint as hypocritical.

Mignard suggested the photographs had been taken to distract attention from Royal’s visit to Pointe-a-Pitre on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in support of protests to demand better living standards there.

Why would photographers be welcome to cover her in Pointe-a-Pitre and not in the streets of a Spanish resort? Let’s put an end to this hypocrisy, the editors wrote in a message on the magazine’s website.

In going to Guadeloupe in a personal capacity, on the sidelines of the negotiations and without any Socialist Party mandate, Segolene Royal showed her desire to appear in the media ahead of upcoming elections, it said. The first time, on October 5, 2006, it was under the title ‘The irresistible rise’, they noted.

Segolene Royal has appeared on the cover of Paris Match seven times in the course of the past two years. .

Paris Match published three photos of Royal and her friend.

Other pictures accompanying the article, a warm tribute to Royal’s independent spirit, show her at work meeting strike leaders in Guadeloupe last week and attending the funeral of a slain labour activist.

Royal is wearing her trademark blue tunic over blue trousers, a look she unveiled in September when she staged a rally for 4,000 supporters at a Paris concert venue during her failed campaign for the Socialist leadership .

French politics Рmedia РS̩gol̬ne Royal
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Royal, a mother of four, split from long-term partner Francois Hollande, who was then Socialist Party general secretary, a few weeks after she was defeated by President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 election

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REUTERS – Protesters on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe signed a wage deal with two small employer groups on Friday but did not call an end to a five-week-long strike that has paralysed the island.

The agreement to grant the lowest-paid workers a wage increase of 200 euros ($254.3) a month will affect a minority of employees since the largest employer organisations boycotted the talks, the local government employment office said.

Citing security fears after weeks of violent protests and angry exchanges with unionists, the main employer group, MEDEF, and three other organisations refused to negotiate.

This agreement still has a narrow base and needs to be widened since for now it only affects 15,000-to-17,000 employees out of 85,000, Guadeloupe Prefect Nicolas Berthelot told French radio.

The agreement between unions and employer groups Union des &laquo Chefs d&rsquoentreprise de Guadeloupe &raquo and the &laquo Collectif des entrepreneurs, which will take effect on Match 1, was bolstered by French state aid.

Youth gangs have clashed with police in violent street battles and a union leader has been shot dead in the protests, which were sparked by the rising cost of fuel and food on the import-dependent island. .

Since it a minimum agreement, I think there won&rsquot be any difficulties for (the other groups) to sign it, he said. Other employees will see a wage increase of about six percent, to be negotiated in each sector, Henry Berthelot, secretary general of the moderate CFDT union, told Reuters.

Prices on Guadeloupe, which is part of France and the European Union, are generally higher on the mainland while wages are lower, and unemployment stands at more than 20 percent.

The French state will contribute half of the wage increase, or 100 euros, from 2009-2011, part of a package of measures to quell the unrest and bring economic relief to poor families.

Economic crisis – French politics – French-speaking world – Guadeloupe – Martinique – protests
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The protests have also exposed underlying tensions between workers and a wealthy white minority, many of whom descended from slave-era colonists, and have spread to neighbouring Martinique

MGMT’s “Kids” Aren’t Alright for French President : Turns out John McCain isn’t the only politician who had better think twice before using any old song as a rallying cry. Indie duo MGMT have demanded compensation from French…

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MGMT's "Kids" Aren't Alright for French President: BollySite

(I thought the “Hobby of Kings” was coin collecting? – AC Dwyer) Apparently he has been a stamp collector since he was a young boy and his collection is growing into one of the most impressive in..

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has revealed that he likes to …

.Vincent Cassel, one of the stars of the Oceans 12 and 13 movies, scooped the best actor prize at France’s top Cesar film awards for a role playing a notorious French gangster.
But his movie, Mesrine, which went into the Cesars ceremony with nominations for 10 prizes, was brushed aside by Seraphine, the story of a dowdy cleaning woman who has a secret life as an artist, which took seven awards including best French movie.
Seraphine, directed by Martin Provost, also won the best actress Cesar for its Belgian star Yolande Moreau, best screenplay, best photography, best music, best decor and for its costumes.
The movie is the story of how a German art collector in France discovers that his cleaning lady, Seraphine, is a secret artist.
Provost got the best film award from Hollywood actor-director Sean Penn.
The movie also earned the best director award for Jean-Francois Richet.
Cassel, now a leading bad boy in Hollywood as well in French movies, was the star of a violent film based on the life of infamous underworld figure of the 1970s Jacques Mesrine. .
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US film star Dustin Hoffman was given a special award for his life’s work at the 34th Cesars ceremony

This is awesome – MGMT is suing Nicolas Sarkozy for using their song Kids during his campaign! Sarkozy is the shit! He’s dating a supermodel and’s down with MGMT! I love France.

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MGMT to suing the French President!

Indie rockers MGMT have sued French President Nicolas Sarkozy for using their song “Kids” in online advertisements without permission, the BBC reports.

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MGMT sues French president | EW.com

Indie rockers MGMT have sued French President Nicolas Sarkozy for using their song “Kids” in online advertisements without permission, the BBC reports.

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MGMT sues French president

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AFP – The heroic status of former hostage Ingrid Betancourt takes a hit in a book published Friday, with fellow ex-captives describing the French-Colombian politician as domineering and even treacherous.

Three US men who were held by Marxist FARC guerrillas in the Colombian jungle for more than five years wrote in Out of Captivity that Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate, was a selfish, domineering woman.

The trio were captured after their light airplane crashed in FARC territory in February 2003 during a US government surveillance flight.

The book, released this week, is the account by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Tom Howes of their 1,967 days with the FARC before a dramatic rescue operation by the Colombian military in July, 2008.

She says she plans to write her own book on the ordeal and that she still suffers nightmares about her experiences.

Betancourt was the highest profile prisoner of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and spent more than six years captive before the rescue.

But according to the three writers, Betancourt was not always quite a hero — refusing to share, acting arrogantly, and telling the guards that the American captives were from the CIA. There is also interest in Hollywood in turning the story into a film.

Gonsalves relates that Betancourt wanted the camp commander to refuse them space in her shelter.

Ingrid had sent notes to (FARC commander) Sombra telling him that we were CIA agents and she wanted us out of there for that reason, Stansell writes in the book, where the narration alternates between the three men. She wanted us put in some other part of camp.

She wasn’t making a request, but issuing a command.

His co-author Gonsalves says that Stansell complained about Ingrid’s selfishness to anyone who would listen.

Stansell emerges as the most bitter about Betancourt.

Maybe she was not the person we thought she was. .

Betancourt did not respond to requests for comment. Maybe Ingrid has a far more complicated and multi-dimensional person than she’d allowed us to believe.

FARC – hostages – Ingrid Betancourt

Indie rock band MGMT is suing French president Nicolas Sarkozy for using their song “Kids” in online videos without obtaining the band’s permission. Sarkozy has admitted he screwed up, so he’s offering to settle: by giving the band one …

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy: Copyright Scofflaw