Lawyers ready for racy Carla Bruni biography

Carla Bruni, denounced as a "prostitute" by an Iranian newspaper following her intervention on behalf of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, faces an assault on her character much closer to home when a biography about her is published later this month.

Le Parisien reports that Besma Lahouri, who two years ago wrote a well-received biography of the former French football team captain Zinedine Zidane, has been researching a book on Bruni, the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy - and it sounds like a classic tell-all.

The book will cover Bruni's youth, her friends and lovers, her relationships with her doctors and her modelling career. "Everything is scrutinised," according to Le Parisien.

A "publishing source" told the Daily Telegraph: "The principal story is about a fast-living adventuress with an obsession with wealth and fame. Nobody from Carla's camp has assisted with anything. This is a proper, unbiased investigation into a world-famous former model, pop singer and first lady."
 
Readers will doubtless be hoping the biography will flesh out the character of the controversial First Lady, who, not long before her marriage to Sarkozy, told Madame Figaro: "I am a tamer [of men], a cat, an Italian - monogamy bores me terribly. I am monogamous from time to time but I prefer polygamy and polyandry."

A spokesman for the book's publisher Flammarion says lawyers have seen the manuscript and they were ready for any legal action from the Elysee Palace.

But there are signs Bruni has more than just lawyers on her side.  According to Marianne magazine, she has helped two other writers, Yves Derai and Michaël Darmon, prepare a more sympathetic biography, which is also expected to be published during September. ·