Carla Bruni is back on the campaign trail in the quest to style the French presidential couple as down-home, salt of the earth types. She has told the French weekly, Le Nouvel Observateur that being first lady doesn't weigh on her because she travels around Paris in disguise.
"With a wig on, no one recognises me on the Metro," she said. "Recently I even had my bag searched at the Musée de la Marine [France's maritime museum]".
The multimillionaire heiress, who once made over £4m a year at the height of her supermodel fame, sparked ridicule last month when she said she and the president were modest folk. Now she says: "I wasn't talking about our lifestyle. I'm aware that I have a life full of privilege." She claimed she meant her husband's "modest attitude" in contrast to his reputation for arrogance.
Sarkozy is trying to restyle himself as a man of people in his battle for re-election, struggling to ditch his reputation for his taste in flashy bling.
Bruni said that out on the campaign trail she sensed no aggression towards her husband. "People seem to love Nicolas. Anti-Sarkozyism is a phenomenon of the Paris elite."
She has recently railed against the French media, accusing them of biased coverage, lies and making up stories about her. Asked if she was a rebel made good now quietly devoting herself to charity along the lines of former president Georges Pompidou's wife, Bruni said there was nothing wrong with working for charity, but that wasn't exactly her image in the press.
"Next to Madame Pompidou, with my experience of the media, I'm Lady Gaga," she said.
The model-turned-folk singer said Bob Dylan, "who sees almost no-one after his shows", had recently asked to see Sarkozy backstage after a gig, and she had tagged along. She boasted that "her man" had also introduced her to Leonard Cohen.
Bruni's crusade to vaunt Sarkozy's newfound taste for high culture and art-house cinema was toned down at the start of his election campaign, when an interview with a TV magazine deliberately positioned her as a humble new mum who liked to watch TV soaps and the Tour de France at home in a tracksuit.
