Famed director Woody Allen is now in Paris, France, shooting a film aptly called “Midnight in Paris.” The cast includes heavy names like Oscar-winning Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Michael Sheen, Rachel McAdams, and Owen Wilson, and also includes a cameo by none other than the First Lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the first First Lady ever to appear in a feature film while her husband is still in office.

How Woody Allen managed to achieve that is not yet known but what is being RUMORED is that he’s not really that happy he got Carla on board, the New York Daily News says. Though she’s only supposed to appear in one scene that does not even have dialog, so it’s basically a few minutes of her walking out of a shop, the First Lady is having serious trouble getting it done, despite her experience in front of the cameras as a model.

“France’s First Lady Carla Bruni always struck us as ever-ready for her closeup, but apparently that’s not the case when it comes to acting. Some pretty hilarious reports are coming out of Paris where the stunning wife of Nicolas Sarkozy is doing a bit part as a museum curator in Woody Allen’s new film, ‘Midnight in Paris.’ According to London’s Mail Online website, Bruni required at least 35 takes to film a dialogue-free scene that required her to simply walk in and out of a grocery store clutching a baguette,” says the NY Daily News.

“An onlooker quoted in the story says Bruni sacre-blew it because she was ‘struggling to avoid looking directly into the camera, which didn’t impress Woody Allen.’ The source added: ‘The baguette scene could not have been simpler, but Carla wanted to make it a big one.’ If she gave Allen a big headache instead, the director downplayed it. He reportedly ‘was very careful to show a lot of respect’ to Bruni, ‘especially since she was surrounded by bodyguards.’ Allen was ‘particularly low-key’ when Sarkozy himself showed up to check out his wife’s performance,” the report goes on to say.

Still, the same onlooker says, Woody looked far from “enthused” about the First Lady’s acting skills and the time she required to get such a simple scene done. Whether the 35 takes were eventually enough to make the director’s vision come to life, fans will only find out in 2011, when “Midnight in Paris” comes out in theaters. 

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