'Love handle' affair underscores Sarkozy's close relations with French media

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France paddling
a canoe on Lake Winnipesaukee while on
vacation in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire on
Aug. 4. The magazine Paris Match retouched
this photo, masking his 'love handle.'

At least in never came to this concerning the Bushes.

A popular magazine owned by a close friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy doctored a photograph of the French leader to make his waist look thinner, a rival publication reported on Thursday.

The weekly newsmagazine L'Express said that Paris Match, owned by the businessman Arnaud Lagardère, had applied a "magic wand" to the photograph of Sarkozy paddling in a canoe to remove the bulges around his waist that are often known as "love handles."

To be fair, and damn it I hate when I am, the next paragraph of the story begins by saying Sarkozy didn't ask for the retouch.

Via International Herald Tribune.