Aftermath, Ice Problems, DSK

AFTERMATH


The recent fire at Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille has had an unexpected fallout. In the end, eight apartments and four hotel rooms were completely destroyed, and some 40 hotel rooms were damaged. The extent of the overall damage is such that the organizing committee of Marseille 2013 (Cultural Capital of Europe) have made a preliminary decision to withdraw from the 2013 cultural events agenda the Cité Radieuse where several exhibits had been planned as well as visits to the model apartment with its famous integrated furniture designed by Charlotte Perriand in 1952.


TOO MUCH ICE AND NOT ENOUGH ICE

Last Saturday 2/11 a rugby match between France and Ireland at the huge Stade de France outside Paris was canceled literally one minute before the starting time of 8 PM, leaving 80,000 shivering spectators furious and uncomprehending. After much hesitation, the British arbiter made the decisive call and declared that the frozen field was too hard and dangerous to play on, despite desperate efforts to soften the surface with the help of huge hot-air blowers.

Hot air at rugby match

That same day in Holland, the long-awaited Elfstedentocht was finally called off because at some spots along the 125-mile track that links 11 cities in Friesland the ice had not frozen to the minimum thickness of six inches required for this historic speed-skating race.

Disappointment all around.


DSK ON FILM

For DSK followers, this titillating tidbit in the French newspaper Libération which reported that a porno video has just come out called DXK. The action takes place in a hotel suite where a rich and powerful guest seduces a poor hotel maid. Just to make sure you won't confuse this situation with a recent case in New York City, DXK is called David Sex King and the hotel suite number has been changed. You weren't thinking of the other guy, were you?

Meanwhile, newspaper Le Monde announced that American filmmaker Abel Ferrara has been working on a film about The Affaire DSK, with actor Gerard Depardieu playing Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Isabelle Adjani his wife Anne Sinclair. The film deals with sex and politics (surprise!), according to Ferrara, and will be filmed in Paris, Washington DC and New York City. To be released before the summer of 2012.

Depardieu:  "What - me DSK?"