Derai acknowledged that in the passage involving Mrs

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) A new book focusing on French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is getting a lot of attention – and not just because of a passage that the White House saysmisquotes first lady Michelle Obama.

The book, “Carla and the Ambitious Ones,” also features Bruni-Sarkozy allegedly making a thinly-veiled dig at the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and other leaders’ wives.

Pictures: Carla Bruni’s Acting Debut

The swipe at Diana, according to the book, came while she was talking about a visit to an African hospital earlier this year.

The Daily Mail states that Bruni-Sarkozy refused requests by French cameramen for a photograph of her carrying a baby in her arms “like Lady Di,” adding, “There’s something obscene in promoting yourself when you are giving of yourself.”

The Mail’s report also says that when comparing herself to other leaders’ wives, Bruni said, “‘I’m so different. I was a model. I sing, and I want to continue to sing. And on top of that you expect me to be subtle?”

She also admitted, the book claims, “I am a femme fatale, my dear.”

The co-author of the book defended his sources Friday amid a media buzz over the passage about Mrs. Obama.

The first lady’s spokeswoman has denied the first lady said living in the White House was hell, and 카지노사이트 a spokesman at the French Embassy in Washington said Bruni-Sarkozy “distances herself completely” from the book, which appeared in French bookstores on Thursday.

Author Yves Derai stood by the explosive dialogue, insisting it was based on interviews with “reliable sources” – though he declined to name them, in accordance, he said, with his journalistic principles.

“In France, we have something called the ‘protection of sources,’ so I’m not repeating what Carla or others told me,” Derai told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. “We’ve put in the book the narratives and the information that we verified and compiled and we totally assume responsibility for it as independent journalists.”

Derai said he had interviewed about 50 people for the book and that Bruni-Sarkozy herself accorded the co-authors several interviews totaling about 10 hours. But he stressed the book was by no means an “official biography.”

The French first lady “didn’t read it (before publication) nor did she have the right to correct or vet it,” said Derai, an investigative journalist who co-authored the book along with a Michael Darmon, a political journalist for France-2 television.

Derai acknowledged that in the passage involving Mrs. Obama, the French word that was used, “enfer,” might not precisely correspond directly with the English word “hell.”

“I don’t know, maybe translated into English, hell is Dante’s Inferno where they burn sinners, but in French it’s really a rather common expression to say that sometimes it’s just ‘a real drag,'” Derai explained. He did not say what the original word allegedly pronounced by Mrs. Obama was.

“Carla and the Ambitious Ones” is the second book published this week on Bruni-Sarkozy, an Italian-born heiress and former supermodel turned singer known for her romantic liaisons with rich and famous men including rock icons Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger.

“Carla: A Secret Life,” which came out Wednesday, chronicles her life from her lonesome childhood in Turin, Italy, through her years on the catwalk through her functions as French first lady.