Wed in Their Willingness to Sue
Sarkozy, Girlfriend Decry Ad Spoofing Presumed Marital Plans

By John Ward Anderson and Corinne Gavard
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 1, 2008

PARIS, Jan. 31 -- France's president and his supermodel girlfriend may want to keep their wedding a secret, but there's something else they want everyone to know: They're litigious.

That was the unmistakable warning Thursday when an attorney for Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni hauled budget airline Ryanair into a Paris courtroom for running an advertisement in a French newspaper that included a picture of the cuddly couple.

A thought bubble above Bruni's head said: "With Ryanair, all my family can come to my wedding."

The pair has acknowledged hearing wedding bells, but refuses to say if a marriage is imminent.

"It was an honest attempt by Ryanair to reflect humorously and positively on this very public and publicized relationship," the airline's spokesman, Peter Sherrard, said in a statement.

But Thierry Herzog, an attorney for the first couple, argued that the joke was on Ryanair, because Bruni, he asserted, typically earns about $735,000 for appearing in ads; that is now what the high-paid model wants from the low-cost carrier in damages. Sarkozy, Herzog said, would settle for "one symbolical euro of damage," or about $1.47.

"Madame Bruni never indicated that she wanted to get married, nor when she would get married," Herzog said. "The company clearly harmed her image rights."

"Ryanair has no intention of giving in to threats from Ms. Bruni or to her ludicrous claims, and we will vigorously oppose any claim for 500,000 from this lady, who had engaged in one of the most open, publicized and internationally reported relationships in the world in recent weeks," Ryanair's Sherrard said. "We do, however, renew our sincere apologies to both President Sarkozy and to Ms. Bruni and believe that an appropriate payment to a charity of their choice would be the best and most elegant way to resolve this matter."

"For the president of the Republic, it is a question of principles," responded Sarkozy spokesman David Martinon. "And about Carla Bruni, that's her job, her image. . . . In that instance, she suffers financial damage."

Ryanair has a history of controversial advertising gimmicks, often using unauthorized pictures of world leaders, including former British prime minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minster Jos¿ Luiz Rodr¿guez Zapatero. The airline reportedly settled a lawsuit out of court last year with Sweden's former prime minister, Goeren Persson.

A decision in the new case is expected from Judge Louis-Marie Raingeard de la Bl¿ti¿re on Tuesday.

Even if the president wins, the whole matter could be a political loser for Sarkozy, whose popularity has plummeted in recent months -- at least partly, pollsters say, because his countrymen want him to spend more time on matters of state and less on matters of love.

A poll released this week showed Sarkozy with an approval rating of 41 percent, down from 49 percent a month ago and 64 percent in September.

The main problem, according to Carine Marc¿, an analyst at polling firm TNS Sofres, is that Sarkozy has not delivered on campaign promises to boost employment and salaries. Overexposure to his love life with Bruni, who has in recent years made a new career as a singer, is not helping.

"People are not happy with Sarkozy, and moreover he has a romance with this singer, and everybody knows Carla Bruni has been the mistress of a lot of people, like Mick Jagger, and for old people, it's a bit curious that just three months after he's gotten divorced, he's in love with somebody else," Marc¿ said. But other French presidents have had romances while in office, "and French people don't mind so much, but we are waiting for the problems to be solved. Give us results."

The first couple's romance began in mid-November, about a month after Sarkozy, 53, divorced his second wife, who now uses the name C¿cilia Ciganer.

Sarkozy said at a Jan. 8 news conference that his relationship with Bruni was "serious," and he seemed to taunt the news media, saying that if they were to marry, "there's a strong chance that you will learn about it after it's already done." A French newspaper announced a week later that they had tied the knot, but about a week after that, another French newspaper quoted Bruni, 40, as saying they were "not yet married."