New York, July 12: Was President Barack Obama admiring a pert derriere? No, he was just being a gentleman. US television channels replayed live footage to show that pictures can sometimes lie.
On first inspection, a picture from the G8 summit in L’Aquila created a storm by suggesting Obama, seen as a pillar of family values was distracted by 17-year-old Brazilian Mayara Tavares. Soon after the misleading picture was splashed in newspapers around the world, ABC News and Fox both aired TV footage to prove that pictures can sometimes be deceiving.
The video clip shows Obama wasn’t checking out the young Brazilian social activist, but was in fact turning to help the woman on his right, Emmanuella Louidsor, down the steps of the dais. The video shows Obama looking down at the floor; not at the Brazilian woman. It’s a little harder to explain the leer on the face of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The video catches him literally craning behind Obama to watch Tavares as she climbs the steps. His wife, Carla Bruni, arrived in L’Aquila late on Thursday, after skipping the early stages of the summit. She is unlikely to be impressed with Sarkozy’s devotion in naming the official presidential jet after her.
“Michelle Obama, by contrast, had an audience with the Pope yesterday secure in her husband’s continued saintliness,” said the Times.
–Agencies