French Shrug At Paterson, Gasp at Spitzer
With tales of politicians' sex lives splashed across city newspapers, many French New Yorkers are scratching their heads yet again. They are bewildered by the attention Americans give to their leaders when they learn they've had sex — gasp — outside of marriage.
Pierre Battu, the founder of French Tuesdays, a local social club, said he thinks the recent focus on the sex lives of politicians in New York and New Jersey wouldn't elicit the same response across the Atlantic.
"It would be handled very differently in our country," Mr. Battu said yesterday. "It's a well-known fact that some of our politicians have extramarital affairs or an active sexual life. It's never posed as a problem or is ever a barrier to their political career."
During President Clinton's impeachment over charges that he had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, France looked on in amazement. The country had recently mourned the death of one of its leaders, President Mitterand, whose memorial service included not only his wife and daughters, but his mistress and illegitimate daughter as well.
President Sarkozy, who divorced his wife in October and married a former model, Carla Bruni, in February, less than four months after they first met, is turning heads in France, but more for the way he flaunts the relationship than the speed with which he changed wives, according to news reports. While stories along the lines of Governor Paterson's infidelities would rarely raise eyebrows in Europe, Mr. Battu said that even the forgiving French would be hard on Governor Spitzer for his alleged patronage of prostitutes.
A French-born New Yorker who is a headhunter for Luxe Avenue, Laurent Guerrier, said Mr. Spitzer's scandal would be in a class by itself on either side of the Atlantic. "The Spitzer case is a deep problem because the guy was seen as Mr. Clean and was supposed to use his position to enforce against prostitution," Mr. Guerrier said yesterday. "In a similar situation in France, it would have been a big thing also."
