Carla Bruni Sarkozy. A woman of many talents.

Director Woody Allen is shooting (filming, that is) Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s very watchable wife, in his new film Midnight in Paris.  “She has charisma and she’s used to appearing on stage,” Bruni-Sarcozy posted that Allen said (on her blog).  “I could give her any role at all.”  We can’t recall where Woody polished anyone’s boots quite so hard.

The first lady of France is actually an Italian heiress with interesting lineage and skeletons all over the place.  Bruni-Sarcozy has been a favorite of the French and their tabloids where intrigue keeps finding her.  Soon after she married the French president in 2008, an early modeling photo of her nude surfaced and was auctioned off for $91,000.

Skipping most of her 42-year existence, let’s just say that Carla has had a full life while finding time to dabble in the arts.  She began modeling at 19, cut her first record a decade later and played herself in a couple of movies.  But Carla says she’s not an actress, and warned that she may be unremarkable in this venture.  She’s doing the film, she said, because of the chance to be in a Woody Allen project.  Like Jerry Lewis,  Allen is considered a comedy genius in France.  A gentle reminder to Mademoiselle Bruni-Sarkozy; the star of a Woody Allen-directed movie is always Woody Allen.