Carla Bruni furious about Berlusconi’s Obama suntan jibe

A quip by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (right) about US President-elect Barack Obama's "suntan" has not gone down well with France's First Lady, Carla Bruni (left). In an interview with the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, the Italian-born Bruni, who became a French national following her marriage to President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this year, said: "When I hear Silvio Berlusconi making light of the event [Obama's election] and joking about the fact that Obama is "always tanned", it feels strange to me. Some people will no doubt put it down to humour, but often I find that I am pleased to have become French."

Bruni also spoke of the racism which had been directed at her friend Naomi Campbell in the American South. "I remember as a young model - I was 25 - during a photo shoot organised in South Carolina. We stayed there for a few days. We were given trays of food delivered to our caravan from a restaurant next door. I asked why, and they said because the diner would not accept Naomi Campbell, because she was black.

"That was America in 1992! Now, look at the arrival of Obama, it's clearly an immense joy. For me, for everyone who loves America. For all the French, and notably one of them who I know well."  ·