I keep reading about Woody Allen directing a new film in Paris called Midnight in Paris, but the cast seems rather nonsensical to me. There’s Owen Wilson – who I believe is the “Woody” character, plus actors like Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen…and Kathy Bates? Anyway, somehow Woody talked Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, otherwise known as The First Lady of France, into taking a smaller supporting part in the film. I believe this is the first time a French First Lady worked on a film while her husband was in office. Expectations were high. And they’re just been deflated – it seems Carla can’t act her way out a paper bag. Not even in a scene without dialogue!

France’s First Lady Carla Bruni always struck us as ever-ready for her closeup, but apparently that’s not the case when it comes to acting. Some pretty hilarious reports are coming out of Paris where the stunning wife of Nicolas Sarkozy is doing a bit part as a museum curator in Woody Allen’s new film, “Midnight in Paris.”

According to London’s Mail Online website, Bruni required at least 35 takes to film a dialogue-free scene that required her to simply walk in and out of a grocery store clutching a baguette.

An onlooker quoted in the story says Bruni sacre-blew it because she was “struggling to avoid looking directly into the camera, which didn’t impress Woody Allen.” The source added: “The baguette scene could not have been simpler, but Carla wanted to make it a big one.” If she gave Allen a big headache instead, the director downplayed it. He reportedly “was very careful to show a lot of respect” to Bruni, “especially since she was surrounded by bodyguards.”

Allen was “particularly low-key” when Sarkozy himself showed up to check out his wife’s performance. According to the Mail, “he did not look particularly enthused by Carla’s acting.”

[From NYDN]

That’s hilarious. Carla has done very, very little acting, her career was always as a model and as a singer-songwriter, so I’d imagine that she wouldn’t be very “natural” trying to “act” for the camera, rather than “pose”. But 35 takes? On a scene without dialogue? Yikes. Do you think Pres. Sarkozy was like, “So, Carla, maybe just stick to singing and modeling from now on, eh?”