Sarkozy 'threatened to smash an editor's face over Bruni quip'
French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost his cool and threatened to ''smash the face'' of an editor during an interaction, after his news magazine suggested that First Lady Carla Bruni was a maneater, a new book has claimed.
Sarkozy's alleged threat was provoked by an article in the 'Le Point' magazine offering "24 tips to the President ahead of his marriage to Mademoiselle Bruni". One advice was: "Do not introduce your new wife to your sons, Barack Obama or any handsome men," according to the biographical book.
In his book, 'M. Le President', author Franz-Olivier Giesbert, who is also Le Point's political editor, has given what he claims is a "blow-by-blow account" of Sarkozy's tirade following the article, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.
The French President, now 56, allegedly called shortly after the article's publication in January 2008, started with a few niceties before suddenly turning apoplectic.
"This article is filth and I should smash your face in," he told Giesbert, to which the journalist responded: "Are you threatening me?" Sarkozy hit back: "You deserve it. I don't know what's holding me back."
"There's no reason for you and Carla to feel insulted," replied the author.
"I'm sure you'd blow your top if I wrote that your wife was a whore that everyone had slept with and even wanted to have sex with your children," the President went on. "Never did our magazine suggest Carla was a whore," said Giesbert.
Sarkozy insisted the magazine issue a written apology, which was denied. "You'll see what I'm going to do to you."
Giesbert said the French President subsequently sought to pressure Le Point's owner, the luxury goods billionaire François Pinault, into firing Giesbert, but to no avail.
The 62-year-old author said it was Bruni who finally defused the situation by taking the phone and saying, "Forgive him. But Nicolas is so in love, you understand. He cannot bear that people write this kind of thing about me."
Sarkozy married Bruni, now 43, in February 2008, after a whirlwind romance. The former Italian supermodel admitted to having had a string of celebrity lovers including Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Donald Trump before her marriage to Sarkozy.
