The Baffling French And Their Baffling Ways

May they always stump the rest of us:

In the picture, you see the French Minister of Culture awarding a top state honour to an illustrious artist for high achievement and for enhancing the reach of the French creative arts. That's right, the decoration is being pinned on Kylie Minogue, the Australian pop singer.

The ceremony yesterday at the Ministry's headquarters in the sublime Palais Royal, beside the Louvre, is not as odd as it seems. Official France has long taken a paradoxical approach to "Anglo-Saxon" pop culture. It spends hundreds of millions of euros a year promoting the Gallic arts against the "commercial steamroller" of English-language entertainment. At the same time, it confers high-brow status on Anglo-Saxon stars and showers them with honours.

...Mitterrand's government railed against American Imperialism, yet it went on to make [comic Jerry] Lewis a Commander of Arts and Letters, the highest rank in the order that is reserved for the cultural world. There are only 50 commanders in France and worldwide. They include Clint Eastwood, Bob Dylan and of course Woody Allen, France's favourite American film-maker. Minogue became one of 450 chevaliers (knights) of the order. Other non-French members include Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford and David Bowie.

...It's hard to image that Albanel, the quintessence of the straight-laced fonctionnaire, would have known much about Minogue, who opens a new world tour in Paris tonight. But her speech-writers did a great job.

"Princess of pop, uncontested queen of the dance floors, you are a sort of Midas of the international music scene who turns everything she touches into gold, from records to micro-shorts," the minister said. She praised Minogue's good humour, her choreographic precision and "your unbridled sensuality in your last album, X"
Minogue was acclaimed for her love of France and for choosing Jean-Paul Gaultier to design the costumes for her new tour. "France dresses you; France immortalises you; France takes care of you... and France inspires you..."