Washingtonian Magazine was right on the money when it came to the newsworthiness of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The June issue of the local magazine contains a lengthy profile of the former head of the International Monetary Fund. The only problem? The magazine went to the printer two days before Strauss-Kahn was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a maid at a New York City hotel.
“It was actually sitting at the printer, printed, when he was arrested,” explained the publication’s editor, Garrett Graff. “In a certain way for a monthly it’s wonderful to have that kind of timing, but it’s also sort of one of the unfortunate limitations of a monthly that we couldn’t do anything to change it.”
Unfortunate indeed.
The profile, entitled “The Invisible Man,” looks at Strauss-Kahn’s potentially bright political future in his home country of France. It was to serve as an introduction to his neighbors here in Washington. “The most ironic part of this is that the reason we were writing the piece is that nobody had ever heard of this guy,” Graff said. “You could be standing next to him at the supermarket check-out line and not recognize him.”
The story describes his wife, Anne Sinclair (aka the Katie Couric of France), their dinners at Cafe Milano, their home in Georgetown, and their appreciation for “The West Wing.”
It also details the one mini-scandal that the French politician had encountered before the current calamity. He was investigated by the IMF for having a sexual relationship with a subordinate. “But Strauss-Kahn is a survivor,” writes the piece’s author, French journalist Apolline de Malherbe. “Together with his wife, he weathered the storm.”
On the web the Strauss-Kahn’s profile has been updated to reflect the latest news and some sort of follow-up is being planned for July. And for good reason. “He became the least invisible person in the Western world,” Graff remarked.
