President’s mistress nominated for French Oscar

Celebrity news magazines headlining on French President Francois Hollande are on display at a Paris newstand, Friday, Jan. 17, 2014. France’s first lady is making progress in a hospital where she is receiving care following a gossip magazine’s report that President Francois Hollande was having a secret affair with actress, Julie Gayet, a spokesman said Thursday. Headline at center reads: They are in love for two years. AP

PARIS – Julie Gayet, the actress reported to have had an affair with President Francois Hollande, has been nominated for the French equivalent of an Oscar — for playing a sexy vamp called Valerie.

Gayet has played a leading role in the soap opera that has gripped France for weeks since she was snapped arriving for secret trysts with the president just yards from his official residence, the Elysee Palace.

But it is as a supporting actress in Bertrand Tavernier’s “Quai d’Orsay”, a comedy about life at the French foreign ministry, that she has been nominated for a Cesar, the most prestigious prize in French cinema.

In the film, Gayet plays the role of a mini-skirted adviser to the minister with a penchant for suspenders and no hesitation about using her seductive powers to get what she wants.

The bizarre coincidence was the cause of much cyber chortling on social media, particularly as the term for “supporting actress” in French is literally “female second role”.

Gayet’s affair with Hollande was revealed earlier this month by Closer magazine in a scoop that prompted the president to end his long-term relationship with Valerie Trierweiler, the country’s de-facto first lady.

It is not known whether Hollande, 59, has continued his liason with Gayet, a respected character actress who has appeared in more than 70 films and is also an activist for the president’s Socialist Party.

Gayet, 41, has kept a low profile since news of the affair broke and friends have told various media outlets that she has no desire or ambition to become first lady.