That magazine feature was a major error of judgement
These images are from another website (link below). The tragic error is that Mrs Michelle Muscat seems to have been so keen to live out her fashion-model fantasy (the way a wedding, to some brides, becomes the ultimate objective rather than the marriage itself) that she couldn’t see how being featured in her natural state would be way more successful if what she wanted was connection with readers rather than playing out a teenage dream.
Unfortunately, what she has communicated with that interview is unflattering and unappealing (and unjustified) vanity, which is why people won’t stop going on about it.
What people are talking about, too, is the poor judgement (to say nothing of the sheer vulgarity) of wearing, in the cover shot, a Bulgari diamond-encrusted watch with a price tag of tens of thousands, and with an advertisement for the very same watch spread over two pages from the inside cover.
Mrs Michelle Muscat’s husband told an interviewer, in the election campaign, that the most expensive thing he has ever bought is a handbag for his wife (laying open the question of who bought their cars – we know his parents paid for the house when he was 22).
So who bought that watch? If it was given to the prime minister’s wife by Sterling Jewellers, who sell Bulgari in Malta, then the public must have a declaration to that effect.
And if it was on loan for the shoot, then we need to be told, for the simple reason that a prime minister’s wife should not be using the position she holds via him so as to advertise and promote goods and services for commercial enterprises.
If that watch is a gift from the company, then it is completely unacceptable (look at the fuss they made about a blinking clock).
And if it is a loan for the shoot, then that is unacceptable too. Yes, even if she is not being paid to promote Bulgari, she is still promoting Bulgari for free and that is just not done. Not in her position.
Sterling should tell the public whether that expensive watch was a gift from the company to the prime minister’s wife. What am I saying? The prime minister should tell us.
The press is just so complacent.
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http://zekzik.com/2013/06/23/michelle-u-l-photo-session/
http://zekzik.com/2013/06/23/biex-qed-tithallas-michelle-muscat-tar-reklamar-li-qed-taghmel/
She launched Sterling’s Bulgari boutique, too:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130623/social/Malta-s-first-Bulgari-boutique.475031
She’s either on a yo-yo diet or else her weight changes every week by some 15 kilos.
The sad thing about this photo shoot is that Michelle isn’t really fat. She has a normal figure, a good height and actually carries herself quite well.
This photo session just helps women feel more insecure about their bodies.
[Daphne – Yes, that is my point exactly. Mrs Muscat has a very average figure – nothing unusual there – and that is a point of connection with readers, so she should have been advised to use it.]
Michelle Muscat, posing for photographs with the directors of Sterling.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130623/social/Malta-s-first-Bulgari-boutique.475031
[Daphne – Despite the surname, the two men are not related. The one on the right is Sterling, and his name is down wrongly as Grech, because his surname is actually Fenech; the one on the left is from Charles Grech & Co, just a guest at the event and nothing to do with the ownership of the shop.]
Thank you for the clarification, Daphne.
It is wrongly reported in The Times. He is Alfred Fenech of Sterling. His daughter is Grech Fenech through marriage, though not to Mr Grech on the left.
Sterling Director surname is not Grech neither.
[Daphne – That’s right, it’s Fenech.]
Yesterday it was reported that she “unveiled” the first Bulgari shop. There must be something else going on …
So now she’s also opening business outlets?
So she is trying to be Kim Kardashian with my hard-earned money?
Most prime ministers in Malta were married, and living with their wives, happily or not is not my business. They played that role without any grandstanding.
What is this new emphasis on the wife of the prime minister in Malta? Is it inspired by the US presidential example?
When he became leader of the MLP (the name changed later) I remember him him telling the party followers to love his wife because she loved them.
I felt uneasy with such cloying coyness.
I take it that Mrs Michelle Muscat and the twins travelled to Rome to see the Pope sponsored by our taxes?
She really is a wannabe.
Qallatni l-mara tal-Prim! X’gej issa – xi line tal-lingerie, forsi? Xi fwieha?
Nispera li jkollha underpants tal-bizzilla ghall-irgiel ukoll ghax Joseph qisu dublett.