Auction house Christie's chose to mark today's visit by the French first couple Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni by releasing a 1993 photo of La Bruni au naturel, as our Gallic cousins would say.
Naturally the British press has reacted to this flagrant publicity stunt - sorry, legitimate promotion of the photo's sale at auction - with admirable restraint: by plastering the image across their pages with glee. "Mrs Starkerzy" is the Sun's headline over a full-length use of the photo, in which Bruni protects her modesty by resting her hands in fig-leaf formation.
The Mirror goes even bigger, devoting most of page 3 to drooling over Carla - "Welcome to Britain Madame Sarkozy..." - and reporting on her apparent fury that the photo has resurfaced. The snap's arty monochrome looks alarmingly tasteful and almost out of place in the Star, which relegates the story to page 11, some three pages after a topless beach shot of Jeremy Clarkson.
Mysteriously, the Express neglects to use the picture, perhaps because the story falls outside the Diana-immigration-weather nexus that forms the bedrock of its post-Maddie news agenda. The Telegraph notes Christie's controversial sale of the picture but declines to print more than a head-shot - though has no such scruples on its website, where the full portrait is available.
The most amusing treatment is in the Daily Mail, which straps a tricolore with the word "censuré" across Bruni's breasts - but don't worry, you can get to see the adult version online, along with highly relevant nude pics of Kate Moss and Gisele Bundchen thrown in for free.
Sadly, the Guardian, the Independent, the Times and - sacre bleu! - even the FT are all shamelessly dull and won't show us so much as a censored nipple. Tant pis.
