Their role in the spotlight

First ladies give up their careers and salary, as Valerie Trierweiler shows.

THE fortunes of Michelle Obama and Valerie Trierweiler, arguably the world’s most high-profile first ladies, contrasted sharply recently. While the grandly abbreviated Flotus (first lady of the United States) celebrated her 50th birthday with a White House party, France’s de facto “premiere dame” checked out of hospital. She had spent eight nights under medical supervision after learning that her partner, President Francois Hollande, was having an affair with an actor.