双语环球新闻：打开窗户的风险有多大

　　The moment he leapt up the steps of the Elysée Palace five months ago, Nicolas Sarkozy set about giving the French presidency a facelift. Out went the formal, remote style of his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. In came an open, regular-guy approach. The elegant Sarkozy family posed Kennedy-style for the cameras on investiture day. Mr Sarkozy invited trade unionists to lunch and “victims and heroes” to his Bastille Day garden party. The message was clear: he was a young, modern president in touch with the lives of ordinary people.

　　Little did the people know how intimately they would be in touch with his. Over the past three weeks, the usually reverential French media have crawled over his divorce from Cécilia, which was officially announced last week. It has been splashed on all the magazine covers and chewed over on broadcast talk-shows. “Desperate housewife”, screamed one headline, in English, in Libération, a left-wing newspaper. Paris-Match this week devoted a 16-page cover story to the subject. Mrs Sarkozy herself even joined in, giving Hello-like interviews—“I met someone else, I fell in love”—to the press.

　　Why then this media frenzy over the divorce, the first in France's top job since Napoleon divorced Josephine in 1809 Part of the answer is precisely the perils of presidential transparency. But there is something else, too: the cult of celebrity. The French may consider the Sarkozys' divorce of no political consequence, but they are lapping up every last twist in the drama. Indeed, American-style celebrity news is thriving. In 2001-06, when overall press circulation dropped by 8%, that of the celebrity press jumped by 22%.

　　当尼古拉·萨科齐5个月前健步走上爱丽舍宫的台阶时，他决心树立一个法国总统的新形象。他的前任雅克·希拉克总统刻板、不易接近的风格没有了，取而代之的是一种开放的、普通人的形象。在授权日，高贵的萨科齐家庭以肯尼迪风格的姿势出现在镜头前。萨科齐先生邀请工会主义者共进午餐，还邀请“受害者和英雄们”参加他的巴士底日聚会。要传达的信息很清楚：他是个年轻的、现代派的总统，他要了解普通人的生活。

　　人们几乎不知道能够多深入地了解他的生活。在过去3周内，一向值得尊敬的法国媒体不断报道他和塞西莉亚的离婚案。这桩离婚案上周正式宣布并出现在所有杂志的封面上和“脱口秀”节目中。“绝望主妇”，左翼的《解放报》的一个头条用英语这样写道。《巴黎竞赛》本周花了16页的篇幅做了封面报道。甚至萨科齐夫人自己也加入了。在接受新闻界问候式的采访时，她说：“我遇到了另外一个人，我爱上了他。”

　　为什么媒体会对继1809年拿破仑和约瑟芬离婚以来，法国最高领导人的第一次离婚如此狂热？部分原因就是总统的透明所带来的风险。但是还有其它原因：对名人的崇拜。法国人可能认为萨科齐的离婚没有政治上的后果，但是他们就是爱听故事中每一个意想不到的转折。现在盛行美国风格的名人新闻。2001-2006年，当新闻发行总体下降8%的时候，有关名人的新闻发行却上升了22%。