Selling celebrity in France

For a sovereign who has just inherited the 800-year-old family throne, confessing to being the father of an illegitimate child was embarrassing enough. Yesterday's admission by Prince Albert of Monaco to a second offspring begins to look like a pattern.
   
The prince formerly rumoured to be the gay Grimaldi has provided a good moment to mention France's deepening state of celebrity-mania. First some facts.

According to Thierry Lacoste, the Prince's lawyer, Albert now recognises that he is the father of Jazmin Grace Rotolo, a 14-year-old Californian. Last summer, after succeeding Prince Rainier, an exposé in Paris Match forced him to acknowledge that he was the father of Alexandre Lacoste, the two-year-old son of a former airline stewardess from Togo.