OF course, it’s none other than the wedding of their president himself, Nicholas Sarkozy, to an Italian model by the name of Carla Bruni. You’ve got to admire the guts of the guy. Amid international scrutiny by the paparazzi, Sarkozy proceeded with the wedding anyway despite very harsh criticism that he is mingling personal affairs with the affairs of the state. And indeed he is. Nicholas Sarkozy and the new first lady of France is spending honeymoon with a tour at the Taj Mahal in India with his visit there dubbed as an official one. And he doesn’t care what his critics are saying. All he cares about is that he has forged numerous economic agreements with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which can be mutually good for people of both countries.

One of the side agreements signed during the trip of Mr. Sarkozy is for Universite de Paris to lure in more foreign students from India and not just in the Agra region where Taj Mahal is located. Mr. Sarkozy likewise sees that there are numerous regions in India where French business interests can be tapped. There’s the seaside tourism industry in Goa where he notes can become the next tropical paradise similar to Phuket in France or even Palma de Mallorca in Spain. French IT companies can also lavishly invest in such regions as Bangalore where United States-based IT firms such as Palm and EarthLink have long established their affiliates and outsourced work there. Mr. Sarkozy also notes that there can be collaboration between the prolific French film industry and Bollywood which is based in Mumbai. He envisions that the two industries can have better earnings if they work together to compete with Hollywood films.

The French film industry is already gaining ground and applause at the Hollywood film sector this year in time for the 80th Academy Awards come February 25. There are two great French films coming out this year. I’ll discuss the lesser beautiful one and save the most awesome later. The first one is a biography of the great French singer Edith Piaf and the movie is called La Vie en Rose. La Vie en Rose stars Marion Cotillard, a nobody who was catapulted to fame with no less than two acting nominations in her armpit right now – the Screen Actors Guild award and of course the Oscar Best Actress nomination. Once you have been nominated with an Oscar, it is just like winning one already. That’s a prestige in itself.

The second movie worth noting is The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I don’t know why then Elle editor Jean Dominique Bauby titled his book just like that but The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is his biography. It’s the horrific experience of someone who’s the perfect epitome of a dead man walking – only he is not walking at all. The guy suffers from Locked-In Syndrome, a medical phenomenon earlier explored in one of the episodes of House.