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Jezebel has a delightful layout from French Vogue's April issue in which motherhood gets a grand sendup. Ah, ze French. So naughty. Lovely lithe, model-of-the-moment Lily Donaldson stomps about smoking cigarettes and ostensibly caring for her "baby." Clad in pink hot pants and skyscraper heels, the model tosses the tot into the air without a care, blows toxic smoke into its cherubic face, and tests the bottle milk on her arm with a stance that suggests she's fondly reminiscing upon her pre-baby heroin addiction. Not to mention, she's got another bun in her designer-dud-clad oven. Shot by Patrick Demarchelier but born from the dangerous mind of French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld, the pictures are a hilarious poke at one of the world's last sacred cows—motherhood. Perhaps if American magazines weren't so whimpy about getting provocative, they wouldn't be dying in droves.
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According to an article published in the London Times today, we Brits are now the most promiscuous nation in the world (of the western industrial nations, that is). In terms of one-night stands, total number of partners, and our "relaxed" attitude to casual sex, we beat Australia, the United States, Italy, and France. France! Where having extra-marital affairs is a favorite national pastime! If nothing else, at least now we might lose our reputation for being frigid and repressed.
In all seriousness though, Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe as well as the highest teen STD infection rate in Europe (although both are significantly lower than here in the United States, where abstinence-only sex education doesn't seem to be helping much). Premature sex education in British schools (it can be taught to children as young as 4) has long been blamed for the epidemic, along with the inappropriate sexualization of children by toy manufacturers and the media. But here's a thought. In Britain, we also drink more than any other country in Europe (apart from Ireland and Finland, bizarrely), and our alcohol-related death rate has doubled since 1991. We've also, according to this reasonably insulting story in the New York Times, been causing havoc on summer vacations with our abhorrent, booze-soaked behavior. Could there be a correlation somewhere between the beer goggles and the newfound sluttiness?
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When this blog started in October, Anne Applebaum wrote of how the Nicolas and Cecilia Sarkozy, France's president and first lady, could be a model for American political couples. She had her own life, did not help him campaign, and no one in France seemed to care. Well, just as our presidential campaign has been full of surprises, so too has the love life of the French president. According to the Daily Mail, Sarkozy's girlfriend of two months, former model Carla Bruni, is pregnant by him! You must read this fabulously juicy story, including the account of Sarko's near breakdown when Cecilia divorced him. But that was all so 2007, and now he's recovered and in love. My favorite story is about how Carla fell for the son of one of her lovers (others have included Mick Jagger and Donald Trump), who left his wife (who wrote a book about it), and had an out-of-wedlock child with the guy. Her nickname is "The Maneater." Sarko's romance has caused some protocol difficulties as he's traveled the world with her, since foreign governments have not known how to treat a president and his girlfriend. All that should be resolved soon, as apparently he is going to marry her. This is Jerry Springer with foreign accents and designer clothes!
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