Film director Woody Allen has used an Italian newspaper interview to praise France's first lady, Carla Bruni, for her 'very professional' performance in Midnight in Paris, the new romantic comedy he's been shooting with Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard.
The First Post reported that Allen said, of Bruni's small part as a guide at the Rodin Museum: "She interpreted the role so well that each and every frame shot will appear in the movie. Nothing will be cut."
But Allen's comments to the Italian paper Corriere della Sera hardly chime with an account of the filming published by London's Daily Mail last month.
The report claimed that Bruni was so bad in a simple scene with Owen Wilson, shot on the streets of Paris, that it took a "staggering" 35 takes to get it right.
According to the Daily Mail, all Bruni had to do was walk into a store and come out again with a French loaf in her hand.
But even though she had no lines, she kept flunking the scene by staring into the camera.
The Mail said it was only completed after "animated exchanges" between Bruni and the director.
