French President Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be enjoying the single life. Word on the rue is that Sarkozy is dating TV journalist Laurence Ferrari. The recently divorced newscaster has been spotted at the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy’s official residence, and having dinner around town with him.

Ferrari interviewed Sarkozy in March for the network Canal Plus. According to a source at the station, they “got on like a house on fire,” and have been seeing each other ever since.

See, in America if you have an affair with a separated politician you’re reporting on, you get suspended and demoted. France is just more liberated than us. Then again, in America, we don't use expressions like "house on fire."

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa must be in good spirits. Mirthala Salinas, his former mistress, current girlfriend and disgraced Telemundo newscaster, will finally be off his back and back to work.

Her two month suspension for having an affair with the Mayor while reporting on his marriage’s demise is up. Telemundo has offered Salinas a reassignment at Inland Empire bureau in Riverside, a serious demotion from her previous role as fill-in evening newscaster. Sometimes sleeping your way to the top doesn’t work.

It’s unclear whether Salinas will take the reassignment, but her coworkers, who will undergo ethics training from the Poynter Institute, aren’t exactly excited for her return. One staff member told the LA Times,

I personally would respect her if she didn't come back … It's like the mayor said, 'I take responsibility for my actions.' Responsibility is when you do something about it.

Some of that resentment probably comes from having to sit through boring workshops.

Just like Maria Bartiromo becoming a household name, sex scandals involving reporters can have positive outcomes! Take Telemundo, for example. Ever since it was discovered that on-air talent Mirthala Salinas was having an affair with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa while also covering the details of his crumbling marriage, ratings at the network have jumped! Now, even non-Hispanics are watching. Even the gays might start tuning in. [AdAge]

While Forbes.com went with the headline "Telemundo Reporter Suspended for 2 Mos." for the AP report about Mirthala Salinas, FoxNews.com, of course, had to go one step further: "Telemundo Suspends TV Reporter Mirthala Salinas After Probing Her Affair With L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa." Ah yes, a probe always makes for a good headline.

And also: A good story!

After banging Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for a bit and ruining his marriage (which she covered for viewers), Telemundo's Salinas is being suspended for two months but will, ultimately, keep her job. It took a three week investigation to conclude that having sex with the city's mayor while you're also covering him in your news broadcasts, without telling viewers, might slightly breach a conflict of interest policy. Who knew?

"By its very nature, gossip does not respect the distinction between public and private because it doesn't acknowledge the existence of such a dichotomy," writes LA Times media wagger Tim Rutten. His newspeg? L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose extramarital affairs with Telemundo's Mirthala Salinas made his paper, the Los Angeles Daily News, LA Weekly, and even bubbled-in Manhattan media types interested for a hot minute. Villaraigosa would not be in the position he's in – defending himself against everything from conflicts of interest to being a bad human being – if it weren't for the online space, argues Rutten, and the way it's reduced the news cycle to minutes and a platform for salacious gossip.

That is, if it weren't for nosy shits like us, Villaraigosa might still have a shot at the White House one day. Sorry 'bout it.

• Dios mio! Telemundo anchor Mirthala Salinas quickly yanked off the air for pulling a Maria Bartiromo and banging the mayor of Los Angeles.

• Sources suspect a purported conflict of interest had something to do with Salinas' suspension, with the NYT observing "it was not a wise career move to report that the mayor of Los Angeles was leaving his wife while failing to mention that she was dating him." Well, yeah, in hindsight.

• Meanwhile, People magazine is not sorry they landed the exclusive Paris Hilton interview and Us Weekly is not sorry that they didn't.

• The Simpsons movie to piss off humorless religious, environmentalist types.

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Remember when CNBC's Maria Bartiromo got caught schtooping Todd Thomson, an exec for Citibank, who she regularly covered? Well there's a new story to fill your "TV news lass screwing her way through conflicts of interest" appetite.

Up this round is Telemundo's Mirthala Salinas, who's been sexing Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — who, surprise of all surprises, she covers regularly! In fact, she was the one who, on June 8, broke the news that he was leaving his wife: "The rumors are true. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa confirmed today that he is separating from his wife, Corina, after more than 20 years of marriage." And indeed, absent from Salinas' report was the fact that she was the one responsible.

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