France’s celeb literary culture is so passé

It's a flop and a monumental one, a slap in the face of the rampant celebrity culture that has beset France these past few years. Public Enemies, the best-kept secret of the French publishing world until it was revealed last September as a correspondence between adultes terribles novelist Michel Houellebecq and philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, is not selling well. Publisher Flammarion had printed 150,000 copies but only 30,000 have sold so far, despite the torrent of publicity and the help of friends in high places.

Perhaps readers didn't warm to the continuous rants of two rich kids who have played with the fire of celebrity but refuse to perish by it. Perhaps they didn't appreciate the two millionaire writers naming critics who had made their lives "a misery" simply by doing their job of dissecting their novels. Or perhaps a growing proportion of the French public is getting more uncomfortable with the new celebrity culture - of which their President is the most fervent promoter.

Yet some in Sarkozy's clique are already paying the price, too - notably his wife, Carla Bruni. Despite all the razzmatazz around the release of her third album a few months ago, figures show it was a failure. Despite claims from her production company in August that it had sold 300,000 copies, French newspapers later revealed she had sold only 80 000. It's a flop, considering the worldwide publicity the supermodel-turned-chanteuse garnered, with her husband personally calling chat-show hosts to get her interviewed.

And this week, in perhaps another defiant gesture against célèbritisme, the judges of the prestigious book prize Prix Médicis chose a little-known author, Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès, whose book was turned down by many publishers before reaching the shops, over le-tout-Paris publisher and novelist Jean-Paul Enthoven.

Enthoven's latest roman à clef, The Best We Have Had, is set in a North African palace; there, the protagonist reflects on his friendship with a rich Parisian philosopher and laments the loss of a beautiful younger woman. Jean-Paul Enthoven is Bernard-Henri Lévy's best friend and an alleged former lover of Carla Bruni. He's also the grandfather of the child she had with his son.

Paris is a small world - too small. And celebrity is a culture which has now encouraged one case of intellectual inbreeding too many. How refreshing if the French are turning their backs on it.