[parishilton]

Ex-French justice minister Rachida Dati in sex gaffe

Rachida Dati, France's former justice minister, is battling to rebuild her reputation after making an embarrassing sex gaffe in a television interview about the economy.

Published: 9:05AM BST 27 Sep 2010



Rachida Dati made the sex gaffe while talking about the economy

Miss Dati said she had made the slip, which has since become an internet hit, because she was trying to speak to fast. "I just spoke too quickly but, well, if that lets everybody have a laugh, then that's fine," she said in a radio interview today. More than 100,000 people have watched the clip of Miss Dati confusing oral sex with inflation after it was posted online yesterday.

The original gaffe was made in an interview with Canal Plus as she launched an attack on foreign investment funds. "When I see some of them looking for returns of 20 or 25 per cent, at a time when fellatio is close to zero, and in particular in a slump, that means we are destroying businesses," she said. French website Lepost.fr posted the clip and said by early evening it had been viewed 120,000 times. It was then posted on various other video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Daily Motion.

The French for fellatio is "fellation", which shares some syllables with inflation, which in French is the same as in English. Dati was dropped from the French government last year after her penchant for designer dresses and appearing on the covers of celebrity magazines prompted criticism that a senior minister should not engage in such frivolity. She is now a member of the European parliament and mayor of Paris's affluent 7th arrondissement.