Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Liz Smith "So Relieved" That Carla Bruni Sarkozy Only Had 15 Lovers



(image via fishbowlla)

We always were of the mindset that Liz Smith was kind of the cool elder stateswoman of the New York Chattering Classes, the kind of person one could go to if a high-powered editor knocked you up or had fired you without just cause. Smith seemed sort of like the endearing Gena Rowlands character in Woody Allen's exquisite Another Woman, mentoring the up-and-coming Martha Plimpton on the treacherous narrows of the Upper West Side circuit. Liz likes to quote difficult thinkers of the West at the start of her columns, and she has had a 15-year companionship with the archaeologist Iris Love. All of this backstory speaks well in her favor as being something of a woman of substance. But we realized, ultimately, that she, like many of her generation and class and social position (at Le Cirque, no doubt) live in another world with regards to their take on conventional morality vis-a-vis our generation. She is bound by the tragedy of History. This odd sentiment, which can only be properly construed as thoroughly Edwardian in character (Averted Gaze), from Liz Smith:

"FRANCE'S controversial and saucy first lady, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, now says her boasting of having had 30 lovers was just 'poetic license.' I am so relieved to learn she has only had 15."


And we're relieved that Liz is relieved (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment).

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