• Le Mariage

  Posted Friday, April 03, 2009 5:34 PM | By Liza Mundy
  
  
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  All the posts and photos about the splash Michelle Obama has made overseas, and talk of etiquette issues, and touching the queen versus not touching the queen, and hugs versus handshakes and marital fanny pats, and the general confusingness of cross-cultural protocol, etc., etc., reminded me of a conversation I had with a French journalist around the time of the inauguration. I wrote a book about Michelle Obama, and the journalist--the French were super-interested in the First Lady even then, for reasons that included but were not limited to the lift she's given the fashion industry--did an interview. The journalist, who was very nice, had a list of questions about Michelle Obama's background and personality, one of which was: "Barack Obama is a very sexy man. If he were to have an affair, do you think Michelle Obama would mind?" The answer to that seemed easy--yes, Mrs. Obama doubtless would mind, I said. Later she asked, "And so, Mrs. Obama, if she were to take a lover, do you think the American people would be okay with that?" Also easy: American people, definitely not okay. She looked sort of puzzled. I felt sort of parochial. But maybe not. Among the many things the Obamas may transform into a hot global fashion: Fidelity.
  
  Filed under: handshakes, hugging, marital fidelity, Michelle Obama
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