French First Lady Valérie Trierweiler on Wednesday won damages from a magazine for putting photographs of her in a bikini on its front cover, even though she works for a rival glossy1 that published the same pictures.
本周三,法国一家杂志因在封面刊登法国“第一女友”瓦莱丽·特里耶韦莱的泳装照而被法院处以罚款。瓦莱丽工作的另一家杂志也刊登了同一组照片,两家杂志还是竞争对手。
A Paris judge ordered
celebrity2 weekly VSD to pay President François Hollande's partner 2,000 euros for
breaching3 her privacy and image rights.
Miss Trierweiler, a journalist still on the
payroll4 of Paris Match, had asked for 30,000 euros.
The photos had shown France's first couple relaxing on a beach close to the presidential retreat of Fort de Brégançon on the French Riviera last month. She reportedly told friends she didn't like the photos as they mad her look "fat".
French
commentators5 described Miss Trierweiler's legal action as
hypocritical(虚伪的) given that she declined to attack her own employer, saying she felt "ill at ease" doing so. Her lawyer's argument was that Paris Match published the pictures inside the magazine, not on the front.
It retrained the media
spotlight6 on the first lady, who has sought to keep a low profile after a
slew7 of highly critical books detailing her 10-year
alleged8 feud9 with Mr Hollande's ex-partner Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children.
Laurent Greilsamer, former news editor of Le Monde, said of the first lady: "You have shown yourself to be unconventional, imperial,
amorous10(多情的,恋爱的), explosive, unpredictable. And clearly dangerous."
The court action was deemed curious given that she had also
previously11 visited the beach to work out which spots were hidden from paparazzi camera lenses and where she and the president could be seen.
VSD's lawyer had argued that publishing photos of French presidential couples at Fort de Brégançon was a "harmless tradition" and that Mr Hollande's claim to being a "normal" president meant he should respect the tradition.
Mr Hollande's
predecessor12, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his wife Carla were snapped on the same beach in their swimwear but took no legal action.