les liaisons dangereuses

I can’t tell whose NYT coverage of the ascension of Sarkozy is more breathless, that of MoDo or that of longtime Europe correspondent Elaine Sciolino.

I know! I’ll let you be in judge. In fact, we’ll have a little contest.

Is it Dowd or is it Sciolino?

Dressed in a sleeveless, shiny, champagne-colored dress designed by Prada, Mrs. Sarkozy, 49, and the children lined up for the cameras on the red carpet leading into the palace.

Olivier Laban-Mattei / AFP / Getty

Inside, the Sarkozys made several public displays of affection, squelching the rumors — at least for now — that they were no longer a couple. He kissed her on the cheek under the glare of the television cameras. At another point, he approached her and touched her cheek.

At a celebratory reception after he officially took office as president, she returned the affection. He leaned over to peck her on the cheek, but she turned to face him, planting a kiss on his lips.

Such a display was out of the question during Mr. Chirac’s presidency: he and his wife have such a formal relationship that they call each other “vous,” even in private.

Okay, okay—it’s Sciolino who’s gaga over the Sarko and Cécilia Show. Which is kind of amazing, because she’s a fairly sober reporter. Here’s Dowd yesterday. You can barely tell the difference.

Bound by strict privacy laws, and cozy with the elite ruling class, the French press shies away from printing the skinny on relationships, even though the skinny French public loves gossiping on the subject.

Trying to fathom what is going on with power couples here is like watching a French movie — scenes brimming with emotion and ambiguity.

Cécilia left Sarko for several months in 2005, moving to America to live with a French events organizer — reportedly a response to her husband’s affair with a French journalist.

When Paris Match published pictures of Cécilia with her lover in New York, Sarko became furious with his good friend, Arnaud Lagardère, the magazine’s owner. Soon, the editor was fired.

Mr. Lagardère stepped in again to kill a story in another publication he owns, Le Journal du Dimanche. On Sunday, the paper was going to reveal that Cécilia did not bother to vote.

On the night Sarko won the presidency, Parisians were watching Cécilia’s every move. She was not there when he won or when he made his acceptance speech, and some of her friends were saying that the marriage was over.

But her two pretty blonde daughters from a previous marriage apparently prevailed on her to show up later that night at a victory rally. She came dressed down in a gray sweater and white slacks, in what one friend said had originally been her “escape outfit,” and looked distracted as her husband spoke, plucking at her sweater.

At the post-rally party, Paris Match — now following the Sarko script — was given an exclusive on their happy reunion. They were in a hotel suite, the magazine said, behaving “like lovers.”

“And the new president, regaining for an instant the taste of rhythm that invaded him in his youth, took a step in dance,” the story said. “In front of all their friends reunited, he dances for a single person: Cécilia.”

Hallelujah! fresh meat for the global infotainment grinder!

For those of you who just can’t get enough color commentary:

Mr. Sarkozy appeared oddly ill at ease as the outgoing president guided his inexperienced successor up the steps. Mr. Sarkozy tried to regain the advantage by placing his hand on Mr. Chirac’s shoulder, but the choreography failed to work.

The body language spoke volumes about the tension that has characterized the two men’s relationship over the past three decades, despite efforts to bury their differences in the final weeks. The pair then spent half an hour in a private meeting in which the new president received the nuclear codes that permit him to launch a strike within a minute.

Mr. Sarkozy’s speech was heartfelt, if punctuated by nervous tics and shoulder shrugs that betrayed what his enemies claim is a worrying lack of self-control.

Mr. Sarkozy’s mother, Andrée, sat in a throne-like chair. His once estranged father, Pal, a minor Hungarian aristocrat, was also present. He is believed to have been reunited with his son only very recently. His desertion of the family and reported warning to little Nicolas that he would never amount to much is said to have sparked his son’s burning ambition.

After the pathos, the passion: Mr. Sarkozy planted a kiss on the lips of Cecilia — whose absence during the campaign had fueled rumors that the couple was going through fresh marital problems — and gave her cheek an affectionate squeeze. Then, under the glare of the cameras, it was her turn to surprise him with kiss on the lips. It is not known whether Cecilia and the children will move into the Elysée Palace with her husband.

Meanwhile, however, back at the ranch, dark plots are being hatched:

An Al-Qaeda front group in Europe has apparently threatened to launch bloody attacks in France in response to the election of “crusader and Zionist” Nicolas Sarkozy as president.

A statement posted on the internet on Tuesday purporting to be from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed the group would soon carry out attacks in Paris.

“As you have chosen the crusader and Zionist Sarkozy as a leader … we in the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades warn you that the coming days will see a bloody jihadist campaign … in the heart of Sarkozy’s capital,” the group’s “Europe division” said in a statement addressed to the French people.

C’est la vie!