Le Monde (French pronunciation: [lə mɔ̃d]; English: The World) is a French daily evening newspaper founded by Hubert Beuve-Méry and continuously published in Paris since its first edition on 19 December 1944. It is one of two French newspapers of record along with Le Figaro, and the main publication of La Vie-Le Monde Group. It reports an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which are sold abroad. It has been available on the Internet since 19 December 1995, and is often the only French newspaper easily obtainable in non-French-speaking countries. It should not be confused with the monthly publication Le Monde diplomatique, of which Le Monde has 51% ownership, but which is editorially independent.

The paper's journalistic side has a collegial form of organization, in which most journalists are not only tenured, but financial stakeholders in the enterprise as well, and participate in the elections of upper management and senior executives. In the 1990s and 2000s, La Vie-Le Monde Group expanded under editor Jean-Marie Colombani with a number of acquisitions. However, its profitability was not sufficient to cover the large debt loads it took on to fund this expansion, and it has sought new investors in 2010 to keep the company out of bankruptcy. It has been suggested that a condition for a bailout might be the loss of Le Monde's famous control by its own journalists.^[2] In June 2010, investors Matthieu Pigasse, Pierre Bergé, and Xavier Niel acquired a controlling stake in the newspaper.^[3]

In contrast to other world newspapers such as The New York Times, Le Monde was traditionally focused on offering analysis and opinion, as opposed to being a newspaper of record. Hence, it was considered less important for the paper to cover "all the news that's fit to print" (the motto of The New York Times) than to offer thoughtful interpretation of current events. For instance, on the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the newspaper directly implicated François Mitterrand, who was president at the time, in the operation. In recent years, however, the paper has established a greater distinction between fact and opinion.^[4]

The current chief editor (rédacteur en chef) is Erik Izraelewicz. Plantu is one of several political cartoonists who contribute to the paper, and his work is often featured on the front page above the fold.

Editorial stance[link]

Le Monde was founded at the request of General Charles de Gaulle after the German army was driven from Paris during World War II, and took over the headquarters and layout of Le Temps, which was the most important newspaper in France before but whose reputation had suffered during the Occupation.^[5] Beuve-Méry reportedly demanded total editorial independence as the condition for his taking on the project.

Often critical towards Charles de Gaulle, Le Monde was often described in the past as left-wing, but its editorial line may be more appropriately described nowadays as centre-left. In 1981, it backed the election of Socialist François Mitterrand on the grounds that alternation of the political party in government would be beneficial to the country.^{[citation needed]} The paper endorsed centrist candidate Edouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential election and Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party candidate, in the 2007 presidential election.

Controversies and politics[link]

According The Mitrokhin Archive investigators, Le Monde (KGB codename VESTNIK, "messenger") was KGB's key outlet for spreading anti-American and pro-Soviet disinformation to the French media. The archive identified two senior Le Monde journalists and several contributors who were used in the operations (See also Russian influence operations in France).^[6]

Michel Legris wrote in 1976 Le Monde tel qu'il est. According to this former journalist of Le Monde, the journal minimized the atrocities committed by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge.

In their 2003 book titled La Face cachée du Monde (The Hidden face of "Le Monde"), authors Pierre Péan and Philippe Cohen alleged that Colombani and then-editor Edwy Plenel had shown, amongst other things, partisan bias and had engaged in financial dealings that compromised the paper's independence. It also accused the paper of dangerously damaging the authority of the French state by having revealed various political scandals (notably corruption scandals surrounding Jacques Chirac, the "Irish of Vincennes" affair, and the sinking of a Greenpeace boat, the Rainbow Warrior, by French intelligence under President François Mitterrand). This book remains controversial, but attracted much attention and media coverage in France and around the world at the time of its publication. Following a lawsuit, the authors and the publisher agreed in 2004 not to proceed to any reprinting.^{[citation needed]}

Le Monde has been found guilty of defamation for saying that Catalan soccer club FC Barcelona was connected to a doctor involved in steroid use. The court fined the newspaper nearly $450,000 and the French newspaper will have to publish a copy of the court's sentence in both its newspaper and online versions.^[7]

Recent circulation history[link]

Publication schedule[link]

Le Monde is published around midday, and the date on the masthead is the following day's. For instance, the issue released at midday on 15 March shows 16 March on the masthead. It is available on newsstands in Paris and some other parts of France on the day of release, and received by mail subscribers on the masthead date.

Headquarters[link]

2001–2004 Headquarters for the press group Le Monde in Paris

In December 2006, on the 60th anniversary of its publishing début, the journal moved into new headquarters at n°80, Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui.

The building—formerly the headquarters of Air France—was refashioned by Bouygues from the designs of Christian de Portzamparc. The building's façade has an enormous fresco adorned by pigeons (drawn by Plantu) flying towards Victor Hugo, symbolising freedom of the press.

Directors[link]

• Hubert Beuve-Méry (1944–1969)
• Jacques Fauvet (1969–1981)
• Claude Julien (1981–1982)
• André Laurens (1982–1985)
• André Fontaine (1985–1991)
• Jacques Lesourne (1991–1994)
• Jean-Marie Colombani (1994–2007)
• Éric Fottorino (2007–2010)
• Erik Izraelewicz (2011–present)

See also[link]

	Paris portal
	Journalism portal

• Claude Julien, editor in 1969
• List of French newspapers
• Le Figaro
• Libération
• El País, newspaper in Spain inspired by Le Monde
• Jean-Louis de Rambures, journalist

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Le Monde

• Le Monde website (French)
• Le Monde mobile site (French)
• OJD
• (English) Regular French Press Review—Radio France International
• English translations of Le Monde articles available through nonprofit WorldMeets.US

Matthew Harding
Matt Harding in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan on January 27, 2007.
Born	Matthew Harding (1976-09-27) September 27, 1976 (age 35)
Internet information
Web alias(es)	Matt
Web hosting service(s)	YouTube
Meme	Where the Hell is Matt?
Website
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Matthew "Matt" Harding (born September 27, 1976), is an American traveler, video game designer, and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations. Harding has since received widespread coverage of his travel exploits in major print and broadcast media outlets,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} and was hired by Visa to star in their Travel Happy campaign.^[6]

He is originally from Westport, Connecticut.^[7] He began his game industry career working for a video game specialty store called Cutting Edge Entertainment. Harding later worked as an editor for GameWeek Magazine in Wilton, Connecticut, and then as a software developer for Activision in Santa Monica, California and then Brisbane, Australia.

Harding claims that a sarcastic joke about the popularity of shoot 'em up games led Pandemic Studios to develop the game Destroy All Humans!, on which he received a conceptual credit. Saying he "didn't want to spend two years of my life writing a game about killing everyone", he quit his job and began traveling, leading to the production of his first video.^[8]

On 11 December 2008, Matt Harding sarcastically revealed at the Entertainment Gathering that the videos were a hoax and that he is an actor, not a game designer, and the videos were made using animatronic puppets and extensive video editing.^[9] A month later, during the MacWorld convention, Matt revealed the "hoax about the hoax" and joked about the fact many people took it seriously and the outrage it caused. He also made it very clear that the videos he made were indeed 100% real.^[10]

Where the Hell is Matt?[link]

Harding was known by his friends for a particular dance, and while video recording each other in Vietnam, his travel companion suggested he add the dance. The videos were uploaded to his website for friends and family to enjoy. Later, Harding edited together 15 dance scenes, all with him center frame, with the background music "Sweet Lullaby" by "Deep Forest". The original Song uses samples from a dying Solomon Islands language which was recorded in 1971 by a French ethnomusicologist at the Solomon Islands near Papua New Guinea. The song, "Rorogwela" was sung by a young woman named Afunakwa. According to the video "Where the Hell is Afunakwa" by Matt Harding, Afunakwa died in 1998.

The video was passed around by e-mail and eventually became viral, with his server getting 20,000 or more hits a day as it was discovered, generally country by country due to language barriers, before the launch of major video upload sites.

Harding created a second version of the video in 2006, with additional dancing scenes from subsequent travels, called "Dancing 2006". At the request of Stride, a gum brand, he accepted sponsorship^[11] of this video, since he usually travels on a limited budget.

Harding released his third dancing video on June 20, 2008. The video is the product of 14 months of traveling in 42 countries. The background music/song of this video is known as "Praan" composed by Garry Schyman and sung by Palbasha Siddique, with lyrics adapted from the poem "Stream of Life," a part of the Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore.^[12]

As of August 2008, Harding is represented by Creative Artists Agency.^[13] His videos are viewable on YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo and his own site wherethehellismatt.com. His "Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)" video has been watched over 40,900,000 times on YouTube since 2011 and Harding's YouTube channel is ranked "#83 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Directors" as of December 22, 2010.^[14][15]

Major media coverage[link]

Harding's video clips have appeared on television shows including:

• The Screen Savers (March 17, 2005)
• MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann (August 18, 2005)
• Inside Edition (August 19, 2005)
• The Ellen DeGeneres Show (October 10, 2005)
• Rude Tube (February 15, 2008)
• 40 Greatest Internet Celebrities on VH1
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (August 6, 2008)
• Enough Rope (August 18, 2008)
• The Daily Show (November 6, 2008)
• Good Morning America (May 31, 2006)

In 2007, Jawed Karim, one of the founders of YouTube, stated that Harding's video is his favorite video posted to YouTube.^[16]

On July 22, 2008 and again on July 25, 2010, NASA featured Harding's third video on their APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) website, titled "Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth", making claim of humans worldwide sharing a common love of dance. The website states that "few people are able to watch the above video without smiling".^[17] Harding himself has joked that he is impressed with this, especially since the video has nothing to do with astronomy, nor is a picture.

Videos[link]

Videogame development credits[link]

Harding's development credits include:^[21]

• Destroy All Humans!
• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Army Men RTS
• Dark Reign 2
• Battlezone II: Combat Commander
• Battlezone
• Zork: Grand Inquisitor

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Matt Harding

• Official homepage and blog
• Matt Visits Yahoo! Headquarters

Vieux Farka Touré
Vieux Farka Touré
Background information
Origin	Bamako, Mali
Genres	Rock, Reggae, Soul, World
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Modiba, Six Degrees Records
Website	http://www.vieuxfarkatoure.com

Boureima "Vieux" Farka Touré is a Malian singer and guitarist. He is the son of Grammy-winning Malian musician Ali Farka Touré.^[1]

Biography[link]

Touré was born in Niafunké, Mali in 1981 to Ali Farka Touré. Despite his father's discouragement and his family's lineage as a tribe of soldiers, Touré secretly took up the guitar and enrolled in the Institut National des Arts in Bamako, Mali.^[2]

In 2005, Eric Herman of Modiba expressed interest in producing an album for Touré; to do so, he had to acquire permission from Ali Touré, Toumani Diabaté, and other community elders.^[3] This led to his self-titled debut album, produced by Modiba and released by World Village on 12 February 2007.^[4] The album featured Toumani Diabaté, as well as his late father.

Following the release of a remix album, UFOs Over Bamako in 2008,^[5] and multiple tours, Vieux released his second studio album in May 2009.^[6] Fondo peaked at #5 on Billboard's World Albums chart the week of 11 July 2009 and was included in the Village Voice's Top 100 list for 2009.^[7][8]

In June 2010, Vieux was invited to perform at the Opening Celebration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup;^[9] other performers included Shakira, Alicia Keys and K’naan. That month, Vieux also released his first live album, LIVE.^[10]

Vieux released his third studio album, The Secret, on May 24, 2011. The album was produced by Soulive guitarist Eric Krasno and features Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks, and John Scofield. It also features the last collaboration between Touré and his late father.^[11] The album reached the #1 spot on CMJ's New World chart on 10 June 2011.^[12]

The Touré-Raichel Collective[link]

After a chance meeting at an airport in Germany, Israeli singer-songwriter Idan Raichel and Vieux forged a deep friendship that led to an impromptu get together at a small studio in Tel Aviv in November 2010. Joined by Israeli bassist Yossi Fine and Malian calabash player Souleymane Kane, this recording session – acoustic, spontaneous and entirely improvised – resulted in the birth of The Touré-Raichel Collective. The group's debut album, The Tel Aviv Session, was released by Cumbancha on March 27, 2012.^[13] The Touré-Raichel Collective is planning a North American tour for April and May 2012.^[14]

See also[link]

• African fingerstyle guitar
• African music

Discography[link]

• Vieux Farka Touré (2007)
• Vieux Farka Touré Remixed: UFOs Over Bamako (2008)
• Fondo (2009)
• LIVE (2010)
• The Secret (2011)

With the The Touré-Raichel Collective[link]

• The Tel Aviv Session (March 27, 2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Site

This article on an African musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Performing live in 2008.

Bassekou Kouyaté (born in 1966 in Garana) is a musician from Mali. His band is known as Ngoni ba.

He was born in Garana, Barouéli Cercle, 60 kilometres from Ségou in 1966.^[1] At the age of 12, he started playing the Ngoni. In the late 80's he moved to the capital Bamako.^[2]

Kouyaté's album Segu Blue^[3] was released internationally in 2007 by Out Here Records and distributed in the U.K. by Proper Music Distribution. The album was produced by Lucy Duran.^[2] He has also appeared on a number of albums by Toumani Diabaté ^[2] and has performed in several European countries.^[2] Kouyaté is currently on tour with Bela Fleck.

Kouyaté's wife, Ami Sacko, is also a musician and performs in his band.^[2] His father Mustapha Kouyaté was a ngoni player and his mother Yagaré Damba was a praise singer.^[1]

Discography[link]

• Segu Blue (2007)
• I speak Fula (2009)

Awards[link]

• 2008 - BBC3 Awards for World Music - Album of the Year & African Artist of the Year.^[4]

References[link]

• More from Mali: Review. African Business, January 2008.
• mali-music.com: Bassekou Kouyaté. The prince of the strings. 15 January 2004.

External links[link]

• Bassekou Kouyate on Myspace
• Out Here Records
• Bassekou Kouyaté on Facebook

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
First Lady of France
In office 2 February 2008 – 15 May 2012
President	Nicolas Sarkozy
Preceded by	Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz
Succeeded by	Valérie Trierweiler
Personal details
Born	(1967-12-23) 23 December 1967 (age 44) Turin, Italy
Spouse(s)	Nicolas Sarkozy (2008–present)
Children	Aurélien (by Enthoven) Giulia (by Sarkozy)

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy^[1] (born Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, Italian pronunciation: [ˈkarla dʒilˈbɛrta ˈbruːni teˈdeski]; 23 December 1967) is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model. She has been married to Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of the French Republic, since February 2008.

Early life[link]

Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi was born in Turin, Italy, and is heiress to the fortune created by the Italian tyre manufacturing company CEAT, founded in the 1920s by her grandfather Virginio Bruni Tedeschi. The company was sold in the 1970s to Pirelli (the brand lives on via its former subsidiary in India, founded in 1958).^[2] The family moved to France in 1975,^[3] reportedly to escape the threat of kidnapping by the Red Brigades, a Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary group active in Italy in the 1970s. Bruni grew up in France from age seven and attended boarding school in Switzerland. She went to Paris to study art and architecture, but left school at 19 to become a model.^[4]

She is legally the daughter of Italian concert pianist Marisa Borini and industrialist and classical composer Alberto Bruni Tedeschi. However, in 2008 Bruni told Vanity Fair that her biological father is Italian-born, Brazilian grocery magnate Maurizio Remmert. At that time, Remmert was a 19-year old classical guitarist, and his affair with Borini lasted six years.^[3] Her sister is actress and movie director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. She had a brother, Virginio Bruni Tedeschi (1959–4 July 2006), who died from complications of HIV/AIDS.^[5]

From her biological father, she has a half-sister, Consuelo Remmert.^[6]

Career[link]

1987–1996: early career and modeling[link]

Bruni signed with City Models at age 19.^[4] Paul Marciano, president and creative director of Guess? Inc., came across her picture among composite cards of aspiring models and chose her to model with Estelle Lefébure in campaigns for Guess? jeans.^[4] Bruni subsequently worked for designers and fashion houses such as Christian Dior, Givenchy, Paco Rabanne, Sonia Rykiel, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Yves Saint-Laurent, Shiatzy Chen, Chanel and Versace.^[4] By the 1990s, Bruni was among the 20 highest-paid fashion models, earning $7.5 million a year. While modeling, Bruni dated Eric Clapton, then Mick Jagger.^[7] On 11 April 2008, a 1993 nude photograph of Bruni sold at auction for US$91,000 (€65,093) – more than 60 times the expected price.^[8] She was a modeling subject of a 1999 trompe-l'œil wool-knit dress body painting by Joanne Gair that is included in Gair's second book, Body Painting: Masterpieces by Joanne Gair.^[9]

1997–2005: music career and debut album[link]

Carla Bruni with actor Vincent Pérez at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1997, Bruni quit the world of fashion to devote herself to music.^[3] She sent her lyrics to Julien Clerc in 1999, based on which he composed six tracks on his 2000 album Si j'étais elle.^[10]

In 2002, her debut album Quelqu'un m'a dit, produced by Louis Bertignac, was released in Europe with success in Francophone countries.^[10] Three songs from the album appear in Hans Canosa's 2005 American film Conversations with Other Women,^[11] the song Le Plus Beau du quartier was used in H&M's Christmas 2006 commercial, and the title track was featured in the 2003 movie Le Divorce^[12] and in the 2009 movie (500) Days of Summer.^[13] In January 2010, her song "L'amoureuse" was featured in an episode of NBC's Chuck, "Chuck vs. First Class".^[14]

In 2005, she wrote the lyrics for ten out of twelve songs for Louis Bertignac's new album Longtemps, and performed two duets with him on the album, Les Frôleuses and Sans toi.^[15] In 2006, Bruni recorded "Those Little Things", an English-language translation of the Serge Gainsbourg song "Ces petits riens" for the tribute album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited. She took part in the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in a parade paying tribute to the Italian flag.

[edit] 2006–2008: No Promises and Comme si de rien n'était

Her second album, No Promises containing poems by William Butler Yeats, Emily Dickinson, W. H. Auden, Dorothy Parker, Walter de la Mare, and Christina Rossetti, set to music, was released in January 2007.

She continued recording after her marriage. She released her third album Comme si de rien n'était on 11 July 2008. The songs are self-penned except for one rendition of "You Belong to Me" and another song featuring Michel Houellebecq's poem La Possibilité d'une île set to music.^[16] Royalties from the album will be donated to unidentified charitable and humanitarian cause.^[17]

2009–present: new studio album and other projects[link]

Bruni sang for Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday on 18 July 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.^[18]

In September 2009, she recorded a duet with Harry Connick, Jr. for the French edition of his album Your Songs. They sang the Beatles song "And I Love Her".^[19] The album was released in France on 26 October 2009.^[20]

Following months of speculation, in a television interview broadcast on 23 November 2009, Bruni revealed that she had accepted a role in a forthcoming Woody Allen film. She admitted her reasoning for embarking on the Paris production; "I'm not an actress at all. Perhaps I'll be completely hopeless but I can't miss an opportunity like this one. When I'm a grandmother I'd like to be able to say I made a film with Woody Allen."^[21][22] The film, Midnight in Paris, was released in 2011; Bruni appeared as a guide at the Musée Rodin, who discusses sculptor Auguste Rodin with the leading characters.

In September 2010, she contributed a cover of David Bowie's "Absolute Beginners" to the War Child charity record We Were So Turned On : a tribute to David Bowie (Manimal Vinyl). They also released the track as a split 7" vinyl split with UK legends, Duran Duran.^[23]

Italian singer/songwriter Simone Cristicchi’s entry in the 2010 San Remo Italian Song Festival was the song “Meno Male”, with the chorus lyrics of “Meno male che c’è Carla Bruni” (“Thank goodness for Carla Bruni”). The song appears to mock Bruni and her husband, but Cristicchi stated in an interview for Italian television weekly TV Sorrisi e Canzoni that the song is about “our way of being Italian, [we are] always ready to follow any type of gossip and are uninterested in real problems”.^[24] Bruni was to be a guest singer at the 2010 San Remo festival but withdrew from participating, purportedly because she was offended by Cristicchi’s song.^[25]

Personal life[link]

Marriage to Nicolas Sarkozy[link]

Carla Bruni with Michelle Obama

Bruni met the recently divorced French president Nicolas Sarkozy in November 2007 at a dinner party.^[26] After a brief romance they married on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The marriage is Bruni's first and Sarkozy's third. Bruni obtained French nationality not long afterwards.^[1] She has since made contradictory statements as to whether she still holds Italian nationality as well.^[27]

Following her marriage to Sarkozy, in February 2008, Bruni continued accompanying him on state visits, including to the United Kingdom in March 2008, which created a sensation in the international press and the public in the UK and France.^[28] She has an office and staff at her disposal in the East wing of the Élysée Palace.^[29]

There was controversy on the eve of the state visit to the UK, with the publication by Christie's auction house of a nude photograph of Bruni taken during her career as a model.^[30] The photograph sold for $91,000.^[31] There was also great interest in Bruni's wardrobe, which was Christian Dior, seen as a diplomatic choice, being a French design house designed by John Galliano, a British designer.^[32] Another controversy was the use of a popular photo of the French President and Bruni in the print advertising of Ryanair. The couple was awarded damages by a French court^[33] which they donated to Les Restos du Cœur, an organisation which provides meals to the homeless.

In December 2008, Bruni sued the makers of a bag featuring a nude shot of the French first lady taken during her supermodelling youth. Clothes designer Pardon has produced 10,000 of the shopping bags emblazoned with the nude photo taken in 1993, showing Bruni staring at the camera with her crossed hands covering her crotch.^[34]

On 19 October 2011, Carla Bruni gave birth to a baby girl, Giulia, in the Clinique de la Muette, in Paris.

Carla Bruni at the 2009 NATO summit, 4 April 2009.

Philanthropy and charity work[link]

Involved for years in humanitarian and charity work, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy became world ambassador for the protection of mothers and children against HIV in 2008.^[35] In April 2009, she launched the Fondation Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, to promote access to culture and knowledge for all.^[36][37]

In a letter of support to the association People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), she took a position against fur in fashion.^[38]

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is involved in various charitable activities. She gave her royalties for her album Comme si de rien n’était to the Fondation de France,^[39][40] and supports different events or causes, such as the Born HIV Free campaign,^[41] animal rights,^[42][43] the Nelson Mandela foundation, the French association Aides for AIDS research, the French association La Chaîne de l'Espoir or the association Warchild UK. She also participated in a concert with Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin for the 91st birthday of Nelson Mandela,^[44][45] and recorded a song for the album We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie.^[46] She is involved in the promotion of young artists, and did a duet with French singer Marc Lavoine for the Prix Constantin, an annual French music prize awarded to newer artists.^[47][48] Furthermore, she supported French guitarist Jean-Pierre Danel's charity album,^[49][50] and sold a self-portrait to the benefit of third-world children.^[51]

Bruni met the Dalai Lama in August 2008 at Lerab Ling, a Buddhist temple on a hill in Languedoc, France.^[52] Bruni received Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to France in September 2008.^[53] Bruni visited New York City in September 2008 with her husband, where she attended a meeting on poverty and female mortality with Queen Rania and Wendi Murdoch, met for lunch with First Lady Laura Bush at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Symposium on Advancing Global Literacy and attended the General Assembly in the UN with her husband.^[54] She also attended state dinners with the Emir of Qatar and wife and with Iraq's president in Paris in 2009. She and Sheikha Mozah (wife of Emir of Qatar) will be working together on the topic of education promotion.^[55] Bruni visited Doha on invitation of Sheikha Mozah in November 2009.^[55] She also took cause for a woman in Iran, Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, fighting a death penalty by stoning.^[56][57]

In April 2009, Carla was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III on the occasion of the couple's Spanish State Visit.^[58]

In October 2009 she launched CarlaBruniSarkozy.org, a website largely dealing with her philanthropic work.

In January 2010, Carla visited Benin, her second visit as ambassador for The Global Fund.^[59] She also received Haitian orphans who survived the Haiti 2010 earthquake and were adopted by French families.^[60]

She has been critical of Pope Benedict XVI on the controversial topic of religion and AIDS.^[61] According to Le Canard Enchainé, Bruni was asked by Vatican officials not to join her husband in an official visit for fear that the Italian newspapers would reprint racy pictures dating from her modelling career.^[62]

In late August 2010, Iran's state-run daily paper Kayhan called Bruni-Sarkozy a 'prostitute' after she had condemned the stoning sentence against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for adultery in an open letter, along with several French celebrities.^[63] The paper later also called for Bruni to be put to death for supporting Sakineh Ashtiani, and for what the paper described as Bruni's moral corruption and having had extra-marital affairs herself. Even though Kayhan is a state-sponsored paper and it continued its tirade against Bruni along with other state-run Iranian media, Iranian officials tried to distance themselves from that violent stance and openly condemned it, while a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry criticized the comments as being 'unacceptable'.^[64] President Ahmedinejad also condemned the remark made by the paper.^[65]

Other relationships[link]

It has been claimed that Bruni has been involved with Louis Bertignac, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Léos Carax, Charles Berling, Arno Klarsfeld, Vincent Pérez^[66] and former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.^[67][68]

The Enthovens[link]

While living with Jean-Paul Enthoven, Bruni fell in love and started an affair with his son, philosophy professor Raphaël Enthoven (the song "Raphäel" from Bruni's album Quelqu'un m'a dit is named after him), who was at the time married to novelist Justine Lévy, daughter of philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy.^[69] Bruni later denied ever having an affair with Raphaël's father in an interview published in Vanity Fair, "I never slept with him, not even a minute."^[3]

The affair and the end of her marriage inspired Justine's 2004 book Rien de Grave (published in English in 2005 as Nothing Serious).^[70]

Bruni and Raphaël had a son, Aurélien, in 2001. Bruni told Vanity Fair that the couple broke up in May 2007 because Raphaël thought their relationship did not have a commitment.^[3]

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Honours[link]

Foreign Honours[link]

•  Spain: Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III ^[74]

Further reading[link]

• Gair, Joanne (2006). Body Painting: Masterpieces by Joanne Gair. Universe Publishing. plates section. ISBN 0-7893-1509-2. 

References[link]