At the table - French TV

Again with the TV always on here. Jean-Michel tried to turn it off the other night, and Mme asked him to put the radio on instead for background noise. Anyway, it was just the 3 of us at dinner tonight watching various programs. The first was a very popular comedy news program done entirely with marionettes mocking the big political figures. The only real references I've heard to America on TV before tonight were about two French people who were arrested after flying to the States. One for making a joke about having a bomb on a plane and the other for being suspected of working with Al-Qaeda. Tonight was more disheartening... on Les Guignols (the marionette news show) they did a skit that started out showing George Bush putting gas in his SUV. It kept adding to the story until it got a circular reference back to America being polluted by SUV's which use the gas provided by terrorists with weapons made in the USA. I can't remember exactly how it went, but it was depressing nonetheless. Mme tried to laugh it off - I didn't really respond - I'm not sure how much Erin picked up.

The next show we were watching was some sort of comedy/interview program that we've seen before, but I'm still not clear if they only interview people in the entertainment industry or everybody. Tonight's guest was a well-known French porn star who's promoting his current (non-porn) film. Apparently he's reputed to be the largest, well, man in the world and they even started talking numbers on the show. Keep in mind, we don't get cable - this is national network TV... and then they started talking about how he's made over 1,000 porn films with over 4,000 partners - and he's married with two kids. They asked what that does to his relationship with his wife and he says that after he gets back from a shoot, he can't touch her for two days while he switches gears, if you will. This guy was still pretty young though. Let's say he's been doing this for 25 years. That's 40 films a year - and it probably takes a few days to shoot? He must never be with his wife. Who marries a porn star and what does he tell his kids about his job?