Mayor Marion Barry’s famous statement captures Bernard-Henri Levy’s argument here.
Among the points he makes:
[I]t would be nice to know, and without delay — how a chambermaid could have walked in alone, contrary to the habitual practice of most of New York’s grand hotels of sending a “cleaning brigade” of two people, into the room of one of the most closely watched figures on the planet.
Who knew about the always-two-chambermaids rule?
And – Why didn’t anyone tell DSK that he was one of the most closely watched figures on the planet?
May 16th, 2011 at 10:38PM
from wiki on Carla Bruni:
“While living with Jean-Paul Enthoven, Bruni fell in love and started an affair with his son, philosophy professor Raphaël Enthoven (the song “Raphäel” from Bruni’s album Quelqu’un m’a dit is named after him), who was at the time married to novelist Justine Lévy, daughter of philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy. Bruni later denied ever having an affair with Raphaël’s father in an interview published in Vanity Fair, “I never slept with him, not even a minute.The affair and the end of her marriage inspired Justine’s 2004 book Rien de Grave (published in English in 2005 as Nothing Serious). She paints a vitriolic portrait of “Paula”, the surgically-enhanced model who steals the protagonist’s husband and describes her as “a praying mantis” and “a leech of a woman with a Terminator smile”
— match your two chambermaids with a father, son set
ahh, the French…
May 17th, 2011 at 12:07AM
cloudminder: It gets more complicated. With DSK out, one possible contender is Laurent Fabius, Carla Bruni’s ex-boyfriend.
May 17th, 2011 at 1:00AM
Sacré bleu, mon dieu– its gonna get interesting — and we hear she’s shopping pricey maternity clothes…
May 17th, 2011 at 8:18AM
It appears that we are headed for a he done it, but she wanted it defense.
May 17th, 2011 at 9:18AM
M. Lévy objects, en particulier, to the ‘perp walk’. It’ll be interesting to watch how the French react to American Justice, such as it is.
May 17th, 2011 at 9:54AM
The pre-trial perp walk is an American tradition that we would be well rid of. I am all for maintaining a post-conviction one, though.
In the meantime, here are some thoughts about perp walk etiquette.
May 17th, 2011 at 3:29PM
The leading contender now for the “Socialist” nomination is François Hollande, a rather bland-looking dude; but there may also be his ex-partner Ségolène Royal!
As for BHL, well, he’s BHL, one of our fashionable philosophers with media attention. What do you expect?
May 18th, 2011 at 10:57AM
http://www.newappsblog.com/2011/05/bernard-henri-levy-embarasses-himself-philosophy-yet-again.html#comments
May 19th, 2011 at 3:41AM
Dear Margaret,
About BHL and similar intellectuals, you may wish to read Jacques Bouveresse’s “Prodiges et vertiges de l’analogie”, and Pierre Bourdieu’s “Sur la télévision”.
May 19th, 2011 at 5:28AM
Thanks for those references, DM. I’ll take a look.