In French, it's called the droit du seigneur.
The phrase was coined in the Middle Ages when French feudal lords reserved the right to have sex with the brides of their subjects on her wedding night.
What luck for the ladies. One day, you're a West African immigrant scouring the tubs of the rich and famous, and than, bam, you're "Maid in Manhattan." Except in this case, the Lord of the Manor is a fat, wrinkly old pervert charging out of the toilet in his altogether, looking about as much like Charles Boyer as Pepe LePew.
When Dominique Strauss-Kahn burst out of his bathroom this week and, according to court complaints, forced himself on a hotel maid, he was not just one more womanizing politician caught with his pants down. He was one more powerful man victimizing a domestic, one more influential force betting on the silence of an underling, one more feudal lord who figured the housekeeper was his for the having.
He was, in that respect, not that different from former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After announcing that he and the mother of his four children had separated after 25 years of marriage, the Kindergarten Cop dropped the bombshell that he had fathered a child with a member of their household staff.
Conan let out his inner barbarian 10 years ago, and if he didn't exactly grab her by the hair, he doesn't appear to have romanced her with roses, either. Unless you are Jane Eyre, when the boss comes on to you, you are not in a position to object. This is a relationship of power. The Governator had it. His servant did not.
Word is that when Schwarzenegger told his wife, the arresting Maria Shriver, about the love child, she said "Hasta la vista," walking out where too many other women have stayed. When their marriage ended, the wonder was not that it had ended so soon, but that it had lasted so long. So kudos to Shriver for leaving with her self respect intact. The only thing we need less than a priapic politician is another doormat wife.
Like Strauss-Kahn, Schwarzenegger had been dogged by rumors of adultery. In what now seems a foolish errand, reporters who covered Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign chased down rumors that he had groped and molested women throughout his movie career. Had they followed the Diaper Genie, we might have been spared the specter of the Last Action Hero running the most populous state of the union.
The French press has frequently chastised its cross-continental brethren as overly besotted with the extramarital affairs of politicians. For the French, it's money, not sex, that derails public figures. The French were blase about former president Francois Mitterand's extramarital pursuits, until Mitterand put the Other Woman on the public payroll. Liberation journalist Jean Quatremer wrote that he had incurred the wrath about DSK's notoriously predatory relationship with women. "The only real problem with Strauss-Kahn is his relationship to women," he wrote, after DSK's appointment to the International Monetary Fund in 2007. "Too forceful, he often borders on harassment. It's a flaw known about in the media, but nobody is talking about it openly."
It would be so puritanical.
Meanwhile, Wednesday, TMZ announced that it had photos of Schwarzenegger's 'love child,' as well as his mother, whom news organizations have identified as Mildred Patricia 'Patty' Baena, a $1,200 a week housekeeper who had worked for the family for 20 years.
Photos of the woman have got Americans scratching their heads. You're married to a stunner who could dice garlic with her cheekbones and you're hustling the hired help? Why would you?
Why would Thomas Jefferson chase Sally Hemmings? Why did Ethan Hawke marry his nanny when he had Uma Thurman to come home to? Why did Jude Law pursue his nanny when he was engaged to Sienna Miller? Bill Clinton put it best, "because I could."
It's about power. It's about access.
Wednesday, Shwarzenegger's 17-year-old son Patrick changed his Twitter account last name to "Shriver." Perhaps what it takes is having your children look at you with incredulity and revulsion that makes you realize that a woman is not a vial of hotel shampoo. She does not come with the room.
What luck for the ladies. One day, you're a West African immigrant scouring the tubs of the rich and famous, and than, bam, you're "Maid in Manhattan." Except in this case, the Lord of the Manor is a fat, wrinkly old pervert charging out of the toilet in his altogether, looking about as much like Charles Boyer as Pepe LePew.
When Dominique Strauss-Kahn burst out of his bathroom this week and, according to court complaints, forced himself on a hotel maid, he was not just one more womanizing politician caught with his pants down. He was one more powerful man victimizing a domestic, one more influential force betting on the silence of an underling, one more feudal lord who figured the housekeeper was his for the having.
He was, in that respect, not that different from former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After announcing that he and the mother of his four children had separated after 25 years of marriage, the Kindergarten Cop dropped the bombshell that he had fathered a child with a member of their household staff.
Conan let out his inner barbarian 10 years ago, and if he didn't exactly grab her by the hair, he doesn't appear to have romanced her with roses, either. Unless you are Jane Eyre, when the boss comes on to you, you are not in a position to object. This is a relationship of power. The Governator had it. His servant did not.
Word is that when Schwarzenegger told his wife, the arresting Maria Shriver, about the love child, she said "Hasta la vista," walking out where too many other women have stayed. When their marriage ended, the wonder was not that it had ended so soon, but that it had lasted so long. So kudos to Shriver for leaving with her self respect intact. The only thing we need less than a priapic politician is another doormat wife.
Like Strauss-Kahn, Schwarzenegger had been dogged by rumors of adultery. In what now seems a foolish errand, reporters who covered Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign chased down rumors that he had groped and molested women throughout his movie career. Had they followed the Diaper Genie, we might have been spared the specter of the Last Action Hero running the most populous state of the union.
The French press has frequently chastised its cross-continental brethren as overly besotted with the extramarital affairs of politicians. For the French, it's money, not sex, that derails public figures. The French were blase about former president Francois Mitterand's extramarital pursuits, until Mitterand put the Other Woman on the public payroll. Liberation journalist Jean Quatremer wrote that he had incurred the wrath about DSK's notoriously predatory relationship with women. "The only real problem with Strauss-Kahn is his relationship to women," he wrote, after DSK's appointment to the International Monetary Fund in 2007. "Too forceful, he often borders on harassment. It's a flaw known about in the media, but nobody is talking about it openly."
It would be so puritanical.
Meanwhile, Wednesday, TMZ announced that it had photos of Schwarzenegger's 'love child,' as well as his mother, whom news organizations have identified as Mildred Patricia 'Patty' Baena, a $1,200 a week housekeeper who had worked for the family for 20 years.
Photos of the woman have got Americans scratching their heads. You're married to a stunner who could dice garlic with her cheekbones and you're hustling the hired help? Why would you?
Why would Thomas Jefferson chase Sally Hemmings? Why did Ethan Hawke marry his nanny when he had Uma Thurman to come home to? Why did Jude Law pursue his nanny when he was engaged to Sienna Miller? Bill Clinton put it best, "because I could."
It's about power. It's about access.
Wednesday, Shwarzenegger's 17-year-old son Patrick changed his Twitter account last name to "Shriver." Perhaps what it takes is having your children look at you with incredulity and revulsion that makes you realize that a woman is not a vial of hotel shampoo. She does not come with the room.
c. Republican-American, 2011
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