France's President Francois Hollande and his companion Valerie Trierweiler (L) visit the gallery Yvon Lambert during the Avignon festival, July 15, 2017.(Agencies)
French First Lady Valérie Trierweiler on Wednesday won damages from a magazine for putting photographs of her in a bikini on its front cover, even though she works for a rival glossy that published the same pictures.
A Paris judge ordered celebrity weekly VSD to pay President François Hollande's partner 2,000 euros for breaching her privacy and image rights.
Miss Trierweiler, a journalist still on the payroll of Paris Match, had asked for 30,000 euros.
The photos had shown France's first couple relaxing on a beach close to the presidential retreat of Fort de Brégançon on the French Riviera last month. She reportedly told friends she didn't like the photos as they mad her look "fat".
French commentators described Miss Trierweiler's legal action as hypocritical given that she declined to attack her own employer, saying she felt "ill at ease" doing so. Her lawyer's argument was that Paris Match published the pictures inside the magazine, not on the front.
It retrained the media spotlight on the first lady, who has sought to keep a low profile after a slew of highly critical books detailing her 10-year alleged feud with Mr Hollande's ex-partner Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children.
Laurent Greilsamer, former news editor of Le Monde, said of the first lady: "You have shown yourself to be unconventional, imperial, amorous, explosive, unpredictable. And clearly dangerous."
The court action was deemed curious given that she had also previously visited the beach to work out which spots were hidden from paparazzi camera lenses and where she and the president could be seen.
VSD's lawyer had argued that publishing photos of French presidential couples at Fort de Brégançon was a "harmless tradition" and that Mr Hollande's claim to being a "normal" president meant he should respect the tradition.
Mr Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his wife Carla were snapped on the same beach in their swimwear but took no legal action.
双语资讯
(Agencies)
本周三，法国一家杂志因在封面刊登法国“第一女友”瓦莱丽·特里耶韦莱的泳装照而被法院处以罚款。瓦莱丽工作的另一家杂志也刊登了同一组照片，两家杂志还是竞争对手。
巴黎法官裁决，明星周刊VSD因侵犯了瓦莱丽的隐私权和肖像权，需赔偿她2000欧元。
瓦莱丽仍在为《巴黎竞赛画报》工作，她在起诉中要求赔偿三万欧元。
照片上，法国总统和女友正躺在沙滩上休息，那里位于总统在里维埃拉地区布雷冈松要塞的一处寓所附近。据报道，她告诉朋友自己不喜欢那些照片，因为让她看起来很胖。
法国评论员认为瓦莱丽的法律行动十分伪善，因为她拒绝告自己供职的杂志，说自己这样做会感到“不安”。她的律师辩解说《巴黎竞赛画报》把照片登在了杂志内页，而非封面。
这起事件将瓦莱丽再次推向了聚光灯下。多本批判性书籍详细描述了她与奥朗德的前女友塞格林·罗雅尔之前长达十年的不和。此后，瓦莱丽一直试图保持低调。奥郎德和罗雅尔育有四名子女。
《法国世界报》前资讯编辑劳伦特-格雷伊萨梅这样评价瓦莱丽，“你让大家看到了你的标新立异、专横、多情、暴躁、和出人意料，当然还有危险。”
有人认为起诉一事很难以理解，因为她此前曾前往海滩考察在哪里可以躲过狗仔队的偷拍，在哪里她和总统又不会被发现。
VSD杂志的律师曾辩驳说，发表法国总统夫妇在布雷冈松要塞的照片是一种“无害的惯例”，奥朗德声称要做“平民”总统就意味着他必须遵守这一惯例。
法国总统奥朗德的前任尼古拉-萨科奇和妻子卡拉-布吕尼也曾在同一海滩被拍到泳装照，但没有诉诸法律。
Vocabulary:
glossy: 用亮光纸印刷的杂志
ill at ease: 不安的，感到拘束
paparazzi: 狗仔队