Purring Carla turns into Catwoman

Nicolas Sarkozy is well known for being a bully, obsessed with power. Now his new wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is also showing a nasty streak.

When the couple got together last autumn, France was shocked. Then Carla won people over: she curtsied to the Queen and shook hands with vendors at Rungis, the famous Paris market. Such was the "Carla effect".

Meanwhile, she was operating behind the scenes. The first step: eliminate or neutralise any women near Sarko. Everyone knows Carla is no sister. But she has taken on the big guns - Rachida Dati, Sarko's sexy Minister of Justice, for instance. In a new book chronicling the Sarko-Carla love story, she is said to have told Dati, as she gave her a private tour of the Elysée and pointed to a double bed: "You wish you could have been in it, don't you?" There had been rumours, pre-Carla, of Dati and Sarko's friendship.

Now we are waiting for her to go after another of Sarko's rumoured exes. Laurence Ferrari, a blonde and bubbly TV presenter, was this week given the top newsreader job at the TF1 TV channel.

TF1 is owned by a great friend of Sarko's, Martin Bouyges, and the President reportedly lobbied to get Laurence in the chair. The former anchor, the legendary Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, had assaulted Sarko's ego last summer by asking him how it felt to be a "little boy in the big boys' playground". He was dumped this week.

Everyone is wondering how long Laurence will last. "Carla is jealous as a cat," a friend whispered at an intimate Paris dinner last night.

Carla also has a new album coming out next month. And her husband, whose musical tastes veer towards Celine Dion, loves her music so much that apparently he's asking his friends to review her album. The conservative daily Le Figaro, again owned by a friend of Sarko, this week gave her album a breathtakingly fawning review.

Carla's crooning and cat-like behaviour reminds me of another famous first lady, Imelda Marcos. I once visited Mrs Marcos in New York and was treated to a private concert in her bedroom. There is a certain physical resemblance between the two tall torch singers, both of whom loved powerful men and used their own power to enhance their positions.

Now I'm waiting to see how long Laurence will last. And how long Rachida will last. Because in the world of the spoilt Carla Sarkozy, one thing is certain: if she doesn't get her way, heads will soon begin to roll.