French first lady sues over nude image

PARIS, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is suing a clothing company that produced a shopping bag with an image of her posing naked.

The Independent reported Saturday that in addition to a ban on the bag's sales, Bruni-Sarkozy is demanding more than $163,000 in damages to be given to charity, her lawyers say.

The bag is produced by Pardon!, a clothing chain based on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

The bag shows a nude image of the first lady that was taken in 1993, accompanied by a bubble reading, "My bloke should've bought me clothes from Pardon."

"This bag is an attack on Madame Bruni-Sarkozy's image without her consent and (is produced) purely for commercial reasons," her attorney, Maitre Iqbal Akhoun, said.

The clothing company defended their use of the photo Bruni-Sarkozy was "a woman in the public eye."