Was the thought of having his love handles exposed the reason why French President Nicolas Sarkozy attacked paparazzi while on vacation at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire earlier this month?
On August 9, Paris Match published a photo of French President Nicolas Sarkozy canoeing at the lake (top), but absent were the poignees d'amour that were showing in the same photo (bottom) published by other French media outlets days earlier.
Immediately there were accusations that a directive to photoshop the love handles had come from Sarkozy's office, but Paris Match denies it:
“The only line we work on is the political and diplomatic one. We are rather bad at Photoshop here…the position of the boat exaggerated this protuberance.(But) In lightening the shadows, the correction was exaggerated.”
Our take: Sarkozy got wind of those dripping-with-machismo shirtless photos of Putin and realized he couldn't be shown up at the next G8 summit.
Is this the new way to flex power on the international stage? With all these world leaders ripping their clothes off, let's hope Bush doesn't get any ideas.
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(image source)
